Cross Rivalry Romances - Summer Camp Style
by BrittzandTana
Summary: The one where Clarke and Lexa meet and don't like each other because of old summer camp divisions, until they realize that they actually like each other anyway. Whoops? (Featuring all of our favorites, of course). Repost from Ao3 (ToriWritesStories). M for language and mild smut to come ;D (Daily updates assuming I remember... lol) CLEXA AU! CLARKE/LEXA! FLUFF & SMUT! ;D
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello beautifuls! :D you may or may not recognize this story - if you do, it's because you've been following me on Ao3. Now, I know it seems probably weird that I'm posting this here after being so adamant that this story was going to stay on Ao3, but the fact is, it's done, and I want to have it over here, just like how I wanted Molihua on Ao3.**

 **I will do my best to update this daily, but there will be no author's notes, and no shoutouts, though I will OF COURSE answer any reviews I do receive. So if you've already read this, yes it will be exactly the same as the one on Ao3.**

 **I don't know where I want to end up writing... okay, that's a lie. My endgame for writing is NOT online - my goal is to be a published book author. That's what I want. However, while I am online, I can't pick a favorite place to write, so writing on one place or another and then reposting it onto the other location when I have time is what's working for me right now. :)**

 **So if you haven't popped over to Ao3 to read this... well, here it is. Hope you enjoy! XX Love you guys!**

* * *

Clarke hoisted her bag up further on her shoulder, like that would somehow make it any lighter. What kind of summer camp had rules on the number of bags someone could bring? It was complete bullshit. Though, it was hot out, and had Clarke brought a second bag, she would probably be swimming in a pool of her own sweat by now.

Approaching one of the white, fold out tables that were lined up in front of the camp's entrance, Clarke didn't even try to smile at the woman beaming up at her. "Hello! What's your name?"

"Griffin," Clarke answered. "Clarke."

The woman shuffled through her list, and then she nodded. "Got it. Seventeen, right?"

"Yep."

"Alright! You'll be in Pod One, Red Cabin! Here's your cabin key! You've got a couple of hours to unpack, so make yourself at home!" the woman said, still too enthusiastic for Clarke, who nodded, flipped some of her loose blonde hair over her shoulder and stepped past the table as she grabbed her key.

The place was huge, though she'd already known that. With the number of teenagers that came to it every year, it had to be pretty big. As summer camps went, it was supposed to be actually pretty decent. But Clarke wasn't big on sweating outside, and so far, that's all she'd experienced since she left her house an hour away.

She wandered around a bit until she saw a big wooden sign that said **POD ONE** in big letters, and she exhaled, hoisting her bag up again and making a beeline for the pod.

There were four cabins in the pod, each painted a different color, and she went straight for the red one. The door was open, so there was no need for her key, and she slipped it into her bag as she entered.

Two girls were already in there, talking loudly and excitedly like this was going to be the best summer of their lives. They were sitting on two of the bottom bunks in the room – there were eight beds total, four on top of the bottom bunks. Clarke immediately gravitated to the opposite side of the room from where the other two girls were, climbed up one of the bunk beds and set her bag on the blanket. The ceiling was kind of low when she was on the bed, but it didn't bother her.

The next question – how exactly was she supposed to "make herself at home"?

* * *

"Blake," Octavia answered, for both her and her brother. "Octavia and Bellamy."

"I can sign myself in," Bellamy reminded her.

"Alright, guys," the man checking them in said, retrieving two keys from the little metal box next to him. "Sixteen and seventeen, right?"

"Yep," Octavia and Bellamy answered simultaneously.

"Bellamy, you'll be in Pod Four, Green Cabin. Octavia, Pod One, Red Cabin," the man said, handing them each their respective keys. "Enjoy."

Octavia slipped around the table. "See you, Bell!"

"Don't get into trouble on the first day, O!" Bellamy called back to her, and she just laughed.

"Don't count on it!"

The brunette knew exactly where she was going, and she immediately made her way to her cabin. The door was open, of course, because no one knew how to close doors in this place. Four of the eight girls were there already – two them talking animatedly, one of them on her phone, and the last was doing something in a sketchpad. She had one of the top bunks, all the rest of the girls so far had claimed a bottom bunk.

Octavia climbed up onto the top bunk next to the girl drawing. "Hey," she greeted, loud enough for the girl to hear her over the sound of the two other girls talking across the room.

The blonde looked up skeptically. "Hi."

"First time here?" Octavia asked. If there was one thing she'd learned from Camp Unite, it was that you couldn't go a whole summer without getting to know the person in the bunk next to you.

"That obvious?"

"I promise, it's not bad. Don't have to look so glum. You got me as a cabin mate, for one thing," Octavia piped up, grinning. "What's your name?"

The blonde finally looked up from her sketchpad and made eye contact with the brunette. "Clarke."

"I'm Octavia. This is my third year here," Octavia explained, "and I promise it's not that bad."

"Why would your parents make you go to the same summer camp three years in a row?" Clarke asked, sounding like the idea made her want to vomit. "Isn't it just the same shit every summer?"

Octavia shrugged. "Like I said, it's not that bad. Anyway, if you're going to spend your whole summer here, you might as well suck it up early and try to enjoy yourself. If it makes you feel better, they always serve pizza on the first day. You like pizza right?"

Clarke nodded lamely.

"Good, so you're human! We'll get along just great!"

* * *

"Wood. Anya," Anya told the woman smiling up at her. Lexa was waiting patiently behind her friend checking in.

"Seventeen?"

"That's right."

"You'll be in Pod Three, Blue Cabin. Dinner is in an hour, so better hurry to settle in!" Anya nodded in response, received her key and made her way around the table.

She glanced at Lexa, who gave her a smile and a wave. "Don't wait up!"

"Don't get beat up!" Anya called out, before hurrying off to her pod.

Lexa rolled her eyes, and then smiled at the woman in front of her. "Woods, Lexa."

"Ah, here you are!" the woman said, smiling widely. "Sixteen?" Lexa nodded the affirmative. "You'll be in Pod Six, Red Cabin. Here's your key!"

"Thank you," Lexa said, taking her key and then heading into the camp. She wondered if she maybe should have had Anya wait for her – the other girl had been here before, anyway. Lexa followed the crowd of people who had just signed in, and saw the pod signs as she walked. One, two, three, four, five, and, finally, six. The last one, she guessed.

When she walked into the red cabin, she immediately registered that she was the last one in her cabin to arrive. She tossed her bag onto the single empty bed.

The other seven girls in the cabin were all talking to each other about why they were there. Camp Unite was supposed to be this big deal summer camp, where teenagers from every different type of extra curricular and interest "united" to make the world more accepting, or something like that. No one ever really went in under a specific interest, officially, but everyone had something they preferred.

Lexa had a few, as it seemed. She danced some, she liked to fence, and she could hold her own in a soccer game. She was also a swimmer, like Anya, so if anyone asked, that might be what she was "here for".

"Hey, you," someone called to her suddenly. "What's your name?"

"Lexa," she answered.

"I'm Echo," Echo replied, and immediately Lexa was taken up into the conversation.

* * *

"Reyes," Raven told the person in front of her. Hardly anyone was lining up, and that meant that she was definitely late, so she didn't even bother with her first name.

"Raven?" Apparently, the woman wanted to bother with it.

"Yes, Raven. There's no other Reyes there."

The woman just smiled at her – of course. "Seventeen?"

"Yes."

"Pod One, Blue Cabin. Better hurry, dinner is soon!"

Raven grouchily grabbed her key and rushed into the camp. Her gaze was jumping all around, looking for any indication of where to go, and then she saw the sign labeled **POD ONE** , and let out a grateful breath. She headed for the sign, and as she made her way into the pod, she saw everyone else – a half and half mix between boys and girls - leaving the cabins.

"I'd hurry if I were you!" some brunette called to her from the red cabin, and Raven rolled her eyes.

"No shit!" she yelled back to whoever it was, before pushing past someone to get into the blue cabin. Every bed but one had a bag already on it, so she tossed hers on the last one and immediately rushed out of the cabin. She followed everyone from her pod, obviously clueless of the layout of this place.

She found herself walking alongside the brunette who had yelled to her. "Hey there, slowpoke," the girl said, nudging her. "What took you so long?"

"Seeing as we aren't allowed to drive ourselves here since we can't leave cars, I'd say it's not really my fault that my ride was so slow getting here," Raven growled.

"Hey, chill, I'm messing with you. I'm Octavia," Octavia greeted, smiling a wide smile now. Raven didn't say anything. Octavia looked at her expectantly. "And you are...?"

"Raven," Raven answered, sighing as she gave in. She couldn't be frustrated about being late forever, she supposed.

"What is with people being so grumpy today?" Octavia asked, shaking her head.

The blonde walking in front of her turned her head over her shoulder and said, "Maybe because not all of us enjoy losing all of our water weight in a day."

"Oh come on, the outside is nice," Octavia insisted.

"It's really not," Raven agreed with the blonde, who had slowed a little to walk alongside Octavia. "What's your name?"

"Clarke," she answered. "Yours?"

"Raven."

"Ugh, I'm surrounded by pessimists," Octavia groaned, though her tone was joking. "Remember the pizza guys, and it'll all go smoothly."

"Pizza?" Raven asked, her tone picking up considerably.

Octavia smirked. "That's more like it."

Clarke rose up on her toes a bit to see over the group of people in front of her. "Where are we going exactly?"

"Mess Hall," Octavia answered, grinning.

"They call the cafeteria here a mess hall?" Raven asked, sounding bummed out. "That makes it feel military or something."

"Don't think of that way," Octavia insisted. "Think of it like an actual mess, because it is. They say that people clean it every night, but that's bullshit."

"Great," Clarke muttered under her breath. "This is exactly how I wanted to spend my summer."

"Lighten up!" Octavia exclaimed. "You're already here, get used to it!"

They reached the mess hall and saw people sitting down, all intermixed. There didn't seem to be any rules on sitting with your pod or cabin or anything, but Clarke really had no one to sit with besides Octavia and Raven, so she followed the former to a seat at a random table.

Once everyone was seated, a man got up on the stage at the front of the mess hall and began to welcome everyone to the camp. He talked about the camp's mission – to unite youth from different groups of people in order to better the next generation of adults. In the hopes, evidently, that the business world could become more united and fair.

Not that that would ever happen, Clarke thought, but she thought the premise was definitely good. At the very least, there definitely wasn't anything wrong with it.

When he was finished talking, he mentioned pizza and the entire mess hall went crazy. It was, after all, full of a bunch of teenagers who had spend the day sweating off all of their weight.

Plates of pizza were handed out, and as soon as Clarke got hers, she was already digging in.

"You've been here for two hours," Octavia said, breaking Clarke out of her pizza zone, "how are you already that hungry?"

"Leave her alone," Raven defended the blonde, "you seem to be enjoying your pizza, too."

Octavia shrugged, taking a bite of hers and not saying anything else as Clarke resumed her mission of devouring her pizza.

An hour later, people were starting to leave the mess hall, and Clarke wasn't exactly sure what was going on. "Is there something else, or is everyone going back to their cabins?"

"Oh, there's something else," Octavia answered, grinning widely. "It's not mandatory – they don't really start throwing mandatory things at us until about a week in – but it's tradition that on the first day, we all go down and swim at the lake."

"Of course it is," Clarke muttered.

Raven nudged her. "C'mon on, that doesn't sound too bad."

"You brought a swim suit, right?" Octavia asked, getting up from her seat and looking pointedly down at the blonde, who groaned.

"Yeah," she muttered.

"So get your ass up, we're going swimming."

* * *

"Swimming?" Lexa asked, as soon as she heard what they were doing.

Echo and the other girls around her nodded. "Yep. You swim?"

"Yeah, since I was little," she answered.

"The whole camp does lake parties every couple of weeks, because no one doesn't love them. I mean, come on, it gives everyone a chance to see the opposite sex half naked. And we don't get that often here," one of the girls – Caris – pointed out quite seriously.

Lexa raised her eyebrows a little bit, not responding to the statement, because personally, she didn't care much for the opposite sex.

Nonetheless, when they got to their cabin, she slid into one of the two bathrooms it had – which had plumbing, but wasn't the cleanest thing ever – and changed into her bikini. She waited up only for Echo, and then the two of them started down to the lake, following the crowd of other half dressed teenagers.

When they reached the lake, people were already swimming through the water, intermixing and looking quite happy. No one seemed very standoffish, but Lexa guessed that anyone who would've had stayed back at their cabins.

"See anyone hot yet?" Echo asked, her eyes scanning over the many guys speckling the edge of the water. "Ooh, he has abs."

"Mm," Lexa hummed.

"Hello ladies," someone said to them suddenly, drawing both Lexa and Echo's attention. It was a guy with brown, kind of long hair, and a charming smile plastered onto his face. "I've gotta say, crowd gets better every year."

Lexa didn't blush, though that's what she suspected the boy wanted her to do. Echo, however, did quite the opposite as she scoffed. "Come on, Bellamy, I've been here as long as you."

"Maybe I wasn't talking to you," the guy – Bellamy? - quipped at her, narrowing his eyes.

"You did address us as ladies," Lexa sided with her new friend, raising an eyebrow at the boy. "And it doesn't look like your charming smile is really working over here."

"Not even a little?" Bellamy asked, feigning a hurt ego, though Lexa was sure she'd hurt it at least a little bit.

"Not in the slightest," Lexa answered, giving him a sympathetic smile. "I'm sure you can find someone to fall for it, though. Good luck."

Bellamy gave Lexa a slightly irritated once over, then looked to Echo, before turning and walking off. Yeah, his ego was a little bruised, but it was only because that new girl was with Echo that he actually lost his shot. Echo was probably one of the most competitive people who came to Camp Unite every year, and she wasn't really friendly with anyone unless they were directly in her little group.

Bellamy was sure, though, that had that second girl been away from Echo, he could've at least gotten somewhere.

"Aw, did someone get rejected?" Octavia suddenly called over to him, appearing out of nowhere.

"Fuck off, O!" he yelled back, not even looking at her before heading straight for the water.

Octavia let out a loud laugh, getting confused looks from her two new friends, Clarke and Raven. "Who's that?" Raven asked.

"No one," Octavia answered, smirking. She and Bellamy played this game every year to see how long it took people to figure out that they were siblings with all their bickering. Usually it took people about a solid week. Aside from the people that already knew them, of course, but they generally helped with the game as well. "Better question is who is that new girl with Echo that just blew him off."

"Who's Echo?" Clarke asked. Octavia stopped in her tracks, nodding to one of the two girls with the long, flowing dark hair. She was referring to the one with the lighter colored hair, though. The second one was a mystery to Octavia.

"She and I have never been put in the same pod," Octavia explained, "and anyone not in her pod is her enemy. See, despite this camp being all about unison – which it is, in the end – we do a lot of competitive things. Some are official, some are underhanded. And Echo is queen of competition here."

"Bet I could take her," Raven said.

"Well same," Octavia agreed, shaking her head, "if she wasn't always surrounded by her little body guards that she recruits every year. They're actually usually the same people – don't ask me how she manages to get them all in the same pod every year though. That one, though, the one who just rejected that guy. She's new."

Clarke looked at the girl that Octavia was referring to. Her body was slim, and it was the first thing Clarke noted, since she was in a bikini after all. The second thing she noted were her eyes. She couldn't pick out the exact color from the distance away, but she could see a certain feeling behind them. Like the girl felt slightly out of place in her present company. It was curious.

"Do you know her or something?" Raven asked Clarke, nudging her.

Clarke looked to the brunette. "No."

"So quit staring," Octavia insisted, "or else Echo is going to-"

"What's wrong, Octavia?" Echo yelled suddenly, raising her eyebrows. "Wishing you could sit with the cool kids?"

"Fuck you, Echo!" Octavia yelled back. "Come on, we're getting in the water."

"Since when is this a we thing?" Clarke muttered, eyeing the lake water suspiciously as she followed Raven and Octavia closer to its edge.

"Since you got lucky enough to get the bunk next to me. You see, Clarke," Octavia started, smiling slyly over her shoulder at the blonde, "this year, I am the girl who is going to crush Echo."

"Oh really?" Raven asked.

Octavia nodded surely. "I've thought it all through already. First of all, Echo is a year older than me – so this is her last year. And if I only get a title spot next year because of her leaving, that's pathetic. The goal is, this year I'll wipe her off of her throne, steal it, and hold it next year for someone else to try to steal from me in my last year."

"Are you sixteen?" Raven asked Octavia curiously.

The other brunette nodded as she began to wade into the lake water. Clarke rolled her eyes. "Well that explains the insanity then." Raven nodded in agreement, but after a shared look of hesitation, both girls voluntarily followed Octavia into the disgusting lake water.

Meanwhile, Lexa was still with Echo, though she wanted slightly to escape. The other girl had begun flirting with some guy and, well, Lexa wasn't the most comfortable she'd ever been. Finally, her eyes caught onto Anya, about to get into the water, and she quickly stole away from Echo to catch up with her.

She caught up with Anya just as the other girl was getting in the water, and devilishly poked both of the girl's sides, causing her to squeal uncharacteristically and jump forward, and Lexa broke out into laughs.

"This is why I have to warn you not to get beat up all the time," Anya growled, going further into the water to avoid Lexa. The brunette just followed her, though.

"Hey, that was one time, and I wasn't beat up," Lexa insisted. "The bitch just slapped me for no reason. Wasn't my fault."

"Keep telling yourself that, Lex," Anya said, rolling her eyes. "How's your cabin?"

Lexa shrugged. "I don't know, they seem nice enough..."

"Are you with Echo?" Anya asked knowingly. Lexa tilted her head and nodded, confused as to how Anya had guessed that. "Yeah, figures. She's a little intense. I was in her pod last year. She's probably the most competitive one here."

"Are there a lot of really competitive people here?"

"No, usually just a couple," Anya answered. "This year, I'd guess it's just Echo and Octavia."

Lexa's eyes scanned the water, finding the brunette that Echo had yelled to. "Her?" Lexa asked, nodding to the brunette. Anya nodded. "She seems less threatening than Echo."

"Yeah, that's why Echo's pod has always crushed hers," Anya agreed. "You're in for a fun summer, Lex. Looks like you're gonna get all the wins this year."

Lexa just gave her friend a thin smile, not sure how she felt about it all yet. Echo seemed to like her enough, though, which she figured was a good thing considering the sort of reputation that Echo had. Or perhaps it was a bad thing if it portrayed Lexa similarly. She would have to figure it out, she supposed.

A ways away in the water, Clarke dodged another splash from Octavia. "So," the brunette was asking, "where are you from, Clarke?"

"Caelum," Clarke answered, "it's about an hour out from here."

"Wait for real?" Raven asked, her eyes widening a bit. "Same!"

"Lame," Octavia mumbled. "I'm from Terra. It's only about half an hour from Caelum though, I think."

Clarke shrugged. "Never been."

"Isn't that the place where all the roads are curvy? Like, there aren't any straight ones?" Raven asked. Octavia nodded.

"Something about protecting wildlife. I don't know," she said, waving her hand. "Ooh! Speaking of straight ones, how are you two on sexuality?"

Clarke blinked. "I don't think I understand your question."

"Are you straight?" Octavia asked, glancing between the two. The question came so casually from the girl that it was almost more surprising.

"Bi," Clarke answered, shrugging. It wasn't a really bit deal to her, sexuality, or any of its complexities and ins and outs. It was pretty straight forward to her, really. She liked guys, and she liked girls, but there were specific things that she liked separately about each.

Raven shrugged. "I don't know," she answered. "Are you?"

"Mostly," Octavia answered. "And holy shit now I am. Look over there." She nodded behind Clarke, and the blonde looked over her shoulder to see who she was talking about. She spotted a guy with a relatively good build, shirtless of course to swim, with tattoos on his upper arms.

"Tattoo guy?" Raven asked.

"Yes, oh god," Octavia answered. "Fuck, he's hot."

"He's not bad," Clarke agreed, though she definitely wasn't fawning as much as Octavia was. "Go talk to him."

"I might be outgoing," Octavia stated, "but I'm not that outgoing. I'd probably pass out."

Raven and Clarke shared an amused glance. "Whatever you say," Raven said, smiling to herself. "Hey, he's talking to that guy from before."

Octavia's head snapped up to look at what Raven was talking about. Sure enough, the hot tattoo guy was speaking to her brother. "Maybe they're in the same pod," she murmured, mostly to herself.

"Maybe," Raven agreed.

Clarke stretched her arms a bit in front of her. "Hey, I think I'm going to head back to the cabin. Feeling tired."

"Sure," Octavia replied, still caught up in staring at the two guys.

"See you tomorrow," Raven said to Clarke, giving the girl a smile. Clarke nodded in return, and began to wade back up to the edge of the water.

As she walked back up to the path back to the pods, someone called out to her from not too far way. "Hey, blondie!" She stopped and turned around to see Echo looking at her. "You with Octavia?"

"I'm in her cabin, if that's what you're asking," Clarke replied slowly.

"Cool, so maybe you can do me a favor and tell her that she'll have more fun this summer if she gives up."

Clarke raised an eyebrow. "You know, I think you're being a little too intense for a summer camp."

"If you think I'm too intense right now," Echo said, raising an eyebrow, "just wait."

Clarke rolled her eyes, though her eyes bounced between the girls who were looking at her around Echo. She didn't recognize any, and none of them were the mystery girl that they'd seen earlier. "Right well," Clarke said, breaking the silence, "I'm going to bed."

* * *

"So," Lexa said, looking to her best friend as they started back up to the pods, "any last words of advice for Camp Unite-Or-Die?" She'd just decided on the replacement name, since the strange intensity of the people there made the place seem beyond normal.

"Stay on your team's side," Anya said. "Can't imagine living with Echo for two months if you weren't on her side."

Lexa rolled her eyes. "Sure, noted. See you later, Anya."

"Yeah, see you, kiddo."

"Less than a year younger than you," Lexa called as a reminder as she headed into her pod. She went straight for her cabin, the red one, feeling tired and ready to sleep. She had gotten back before Echo, and she had a feeling that if she was still awake when the other girl got back, they'd somehow end up in conversation. Lexa, feeling far too tired to get into conversation with Echo, quickly changed and then slid into her bed, letting the heat and the first day excitement and exhaustion take over her body.

* * *

Clarke was curled up in her blanket, trying to sleep, when Octavia came back, talking to one of their other cabin mates. "No," Octavia was saying, "pepperoni is disgusting. Hey, Clarke, you awake?"

"Yeah, but if I hadn't been before, I would've been now anyway," Clarke muttered.

"Sorry," Octavia said, grinning up at the blonde. "Goodnight!"

"Yeah."

After half an hour of other people shuffling in, changing, and crawling into their beds, Clarke finally fell into the lull of sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, if you're so unhappy here," Raven was saying, "why did you come?"

"My mom thinks that if I come here, I'll find a hobby that's more beneficial when it comes to my future," Clarke answered, rolling her eyes. "I mean, she's a great mom, she just doesn't understand why I like art. My dad doesn't care as much, but he thought I'd like it here, so together, they forced me into the wilderness."

"I've been to worse camps," Raven admitted. "Not gonna lie, I'm not big on summer camps, but every time I actually go to one, I like it. Plus, since the next year is going to be so stressful with getting into college and whatnot, I figured it'd be nice to relax this summer."

"You call this relaxing?" Clarke asked. They were kind of just wandering around the camp grounds. Clarke, after emptying her clothes into the small drawer that she was given – something she hadn't noticed the previous day upon arrival – had slid just her pencils and her sketchbook into her bag, and had it with her now. She thought that, at the very least, she might find something interesting to draw around the camp.

"Well, I don't mind it that much," Raven answered, shrugging. "I spend most of my time working on mechanical stuff, inside labs and testing zones, so I don't really get to just feel aimless very often."

Clarke just nodded, figuring that it was a personal thing that she just wouldn't be able to relate to. "Did you see where Octavia went to this morning?"

"Nah, she just got up and left pretty early," Raven answered. "She's pretty crazy, huh?"

"That's an understatement," Clarke replied, rolling her eyes. "But that girl Echo is crazier. She treats this place like its a war zone."

As she said it, she noticed Echo leaning against one of the little cabin buildings they were passing. Raven followed her gaze. "Yeah, she does kind of look like she's watching the training of her untouchable army."

Clarke's eyes fell on that "army", and saw a group of people just sitting around and talking amicably. Echo not included, of course, she was watching them like she was too above them to actually join them. Of course, there had to be someone like her at any summer camp, Clarke figured. It was a camp full of teenagers, after all.

The group of them that were actually talking seemed to be enjoying themselves. The guy that Octavia had been fawning over the previous night was there, along with that girl who'd been with Echo, and a few of the other girls from Echo's pod, as well as one girl who Clarke didn't remember seeing at all the previous night. "They look friendly enough," the blonde commented.

"Yeah," Raven agreed, "but I'm pretty sure that if we went over there, that bitch would come at us just because she saw us with Octavia."

"True." Clarke continued walking, and Raven kept pace with her. "I guess we might as well find something to do besides walk."

They ended up finding a spot somewhat off in the woods around the camp, and Clarke propped herself up on a rock and started to draw the trees around her. She didn't really care to draw them, but it was an easy past time. Meanwhile, Raven was reading something or another that she'd brought in her own bag with her.

The brunette left after a little while, though, claiming that she had to use the bathroom, and Clarke nodded. When she was alone, the blonde slipped her sketchbook back into her back and just stared up through the trees. She couldn't get a certain thought out of her head, one that had dawned on her after Raven had asked her why she was here.

Was she really here because her mom didn't like her art?

She'd come out to her mom and dad both about half a year ago, when she'd starting dating a girl and it became beneficial for her to explain her sexuality to her parents. Her dad had been fine, her mom... eh. She could've reacted better. Not to say that she flipped shit or anything.

But when Clarke and the girl had called things off, her mom had relaxed considerably.

Until some TV show came on one night and Clarke nodded the same-sex relationship in it, and her mother had gotten all stiff and commented that things like that shouldn't be shown on TV. Clarke hadn't said anything back to her mom, because arguments with her were impossible.

But was it possible that her mom had sent her to the camp in the thought that she might meet some hot shirtless guy and fall in love? Or just to get rid of her for a while?

The thought made Clarke considerably uncomfortable. She hadn't even thought that a possibility until now, because her mom had made it sound like it was about the art, but she had suggested it the very next day after the weird TV incident. And her mom had been way more tense around her than normal.

"Fuck," Clarke cursed under her breath, squeezing her eyes closed. She hated fighting with her mom, she really did. Her mom was really important to her, and it was extremely frustrating when they disagreed. Unfortunately, they disagreed on so many levels.

"Okay over there?" a voice asked, scaring the shit out of Clarke, who sat up on the rock way too quickly and subsequently fell on her ass in the dirt.

"Shit," she seethed, realizing that her sketchbook had also fallen out of its bag and into the dirt. She didn't look up at the person who'd invaded her space, instead immediately putting the sketchbook away and grabbing her bag. Only then did she stand, looking at the invader.

It was that girl, with the long, curly, brown hair, that Clarke had accidentally been caught staring at the previous day. "Are you okay?" the girl asked her, her expression displaying something between concern and amusement.

Clarke scowled. "I'm fine."

"Okay, well, you've got a little bit of dirt on your shorts," the girl told her. Clarke was still scowling and wiped at her shorts without looking.

"Thanks to you," she retorted, trying to figure out the best way to slip out of this conversation. She would rather not be caught talking to this girl – she was friends with Echo, after all, and Clarke was not a big fan of Echo.

"I'm Lexa," the girl introduced, still having not apologized for causing Clarke to fall into the dirt.

Clarke didn't miss a beat as she corrected, "You're with Echo."

"Apparently," Lexa agreed. "She's a bit intense, isn't she?"

"That's an understatement," Clarke muttered.

"So I don't get your name?" Lexa asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Clarke blinked, noticing her eyes like she did the night before, and how they were green. She could see that now – they were even greener than the forest.

"Don't see why I should give it to you," Clarke said, still trying to use her frustration as her guard. "You did make me fall into the dirt, anyway."

Lexa gave the blonde a smile, something that surprised Clarke. "Sorry," she said swiftly. "Name?"

"Clarke," Clarke answered. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go find my friend." She took a deliberate few steps to the side before going around Lexa, who just turned around as she passed her.

"Good luck," the brunette called, still sounding amused and still frustrating Clarke.

Lexa wasn't exactly sure why she'd went into the woods to find the strange blonde in the first place. She'd seen them go in there – after they so obviously glared at Echo and the group sitting near her. Her and the girl she was with had been with that girl Octavia the previous night, so it was no wonder that they'd been glaring. Lexa wasn't sure how much she liked Echo yet, and though the girl didn't seem to have any animosity toward Lexa herself, the brunette knew it was just because they were part of the same team, so to speak.

When the second girl – the one with the darker hair – had left the woods from where they'd entered without the blonde, Lexa had gotten curious. Anya had always told her that was one of her weirdest traits, because she got curious about the most random things ever. She didn't think it was too weird to be curious about that blonde girl, though, because Lexa had to admit, she was pretty. And despite having been the cause for the girl falling off that rock, Lexa had been nothing but amused because Clarke's scrunched up, pissed off face was hardly intimidating.

Anyway, it wasn't really her fault that the girl was cute and that something about her was just intriguing.

As Lexa left the woods, she was immediately approached by Anya. "What're you up to?" she asked.

"Nothing," Lexa answered, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

"Who was that blonde girl?"

Lexa shrugged. "I don't know, some girl," she answered. "Are they serving lunch yet?"

* * *

"Hey, who's that guy you were hanging out with last night?" Octavia asked her brother as she grabbed her lunch from the row of tables where it was set up for self serve.

"What guy?" he asked.

"The one with the tattoos," Octavia answered, grinning widely. "He's hot."

"Oh, yeah he's just one of the guys in my cabin, Lincoln" Bellamy answered. "Also he's nearly eighteen, so pretty sure he's too old for you."

"He's not eighteen yet," Octavia pointed out.

Bellamy just shook his head. "So, I guess Echo's not any better this year."

"Nah," Octavia answered, "but I'm going to crush her this year."

"You said that last year," Bellamy commented.

Octavia rolled her eyes, turning around to face the rest of the cafeteria after she got the last of her lunch. Her eyes caught on Raven sitting down with food, a book in her hand. "Well, this year, I mean it."

She started toward her new friend and took a seat next to her immediately. "Hey! Where's Clarke?"

"I don't know," Raven answered. "She was drawing earlier I think. Where did you go off to this morning?"

"I went down to the lake," Octavia answered. "Last year there was a bit of a drought and it was a lot smaller, and the frogs that used to be there were like nonexistent, so I had to make sure they were back this year."

"Um why?"

"Why what?" Clarke asked, suddenly sitting down with her food as well and looking between the two of them.

"Why did Octavia go to the lake to look for frogs?" Raven asked, looking pointedly at the brunette.

Octavia raised her eyebrows a little bit. "Have you ever woken up to a frog in your bed?"

"You want to put a frog in Echo's bed?" Clarke asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Not yet," she answered. "That's the kind of thing that we have to do if they beat us at something."

"You're literally crazy," Raven stated. "But I guess that would be funny."

Octavia grinned excitedly and nodded. Then she cleared her throat and asked, "What did you two do this morning?"

"Sorta looked around," Raven answered, shrugging.

"I met that girl that was with Echo last night, the one you didn't know," Clarke added, looking at Octavia. "Her name is Lexa."

"Was she nice?" Raven asked, and Octavia just took a bite of her food, listening.

"I don't know," Clarke said, shrugging her shoulders and poking at her own food. "I didn't see her come into the woods and she said something and I fell on my ass. She thought it was funny."

Octavia was laughing though as Clarke finished the explanation. "That's because it is funny when you freak someone out and they fall on their ass."

Raven was smirking. "She has a point."

"Whatever," Clarke muttered, eating a bite of her lunch and letting her eyes flick away from her friends. "She's friends with Echo, so like."

"Is anyone actually friends with her?" Raven asked. "Or like... do they all just have to be because they're in the same group as her or whatever."

"Both?" Octavia answered. "Doesn't matter."

"The guy you were staring at last night was hanging out with her and her friends today," Clarke stated, wondering how the girl would react.

"Doesn't matter, he's not in her pod," Octavia stated. "She's in pod six this year. He's in pod four."

"How do you know?" Raven asked

Octavia shrugged her shoulders. "I have my ways."

Raven and Clarke exchanged glances with amusement at the younger girl. Sure, she wasn't that much younger than them, but she had a natural brightness to her that just made her seem a bit younger. Though, Clarke imagined she could be quite mature if she wanted to.

That night, Clarke couldn't sleep. She kept tossing and turning on her thin mattress, realizing that she would have to sleep on it for literally the entire summer. She groaned, only to receive a playful shush from Octavia, who was scrolling through something or another on her phone. Earlier in the day she'd mentioned bringing a portable charger so that her phone wouldn't die. How many charges she had on that thing, Clarke wasn't sure. But the bright light coming from the bunk next to her was not helping her lack of sleep situation.

She rolled onto her back, staring at the wooden ceiling above her. She let out a deep breath as she tried to think of something that would help draw her into sleep. She went through her day backwards in her head, recalling her conversation with Raven and Octavia during lunch, but then she was just thinking about frogs in her bed, and that definitely didn't help.

She thought further back – about that Lexa girl she'd met. Though her general frustration at the girl for thinking it was funny that she'd fallen, and at the fact that she was friends with Echo to some extent, she couldn't deny that the girl was absolutely gorgeous in the visual sense. Her hair had been a bit messy, but it was long and brunette, falling in curls and waves. And those eyes. Clarke would probably be able to get lost in them if she looked at them for too long.

She shook her head, trying to wipe the thought from her mind. After all, she didn't know the girl, she was at a freaking summer camp where she was supposed to be feeling miserable, and the other girl was friends with the completely opposite "side" of the camp. So she probably wouldn't even really converse with Lexa ever again. It was just a coincidence that she'd walked into the part of the woods where Clarke had been.

Right?


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the first week of camp went pretty much the same as the second day – people basically just got to hang out and some people started up ball games and the like. Clarke, though, mostly hung around Octavia with Raven. The younger of the three was constantly planning for the beginning of the next week, when the first competition would start.

And it was that day that Clarke actually felt interested at all in what was going on.

Clarke heard a loud knocking on the cabin door, and she groaned along with everyone else in the cabin as they stirred.

"Competitions start today! Up!" came a loud voice from outside the cabin. Clarke wasn't sure who it was, but she just obeyed the orders and climbed down from her bunk. Being the first one actually out of her bed had its perks, because she got the bathroom first.

When she left the bathroom, everyone was sitting around Octavia, who was telling them about the competitions.

"They're always different," Octavia was saying. "Like, sometimes they're actually sports games, and sometimes they're like teamwork exercises. It's kinda lame, but everyone hypes them up so much that it's actually fun. And the winners always get first pick at dinner."

Fifteen minutes later, everyone from their cabin was ready to go, and they filtered out of the small house. It was sunny outside, and Clarke groaned as she realized that she would probably have to run at some point in the day.

"Cheer up, Clarke!" Octavia chimed. "We're gonna win today!"

"Doesn't change the amount of effort I have to put in," Clarke muttered.

"Octavia is right though," Raven insisted, "you should at least try to have fun now that you're here. I'm not moping."

"Be like Raven!" Octavia said, grinning.

Clarke just sighed, crossing her arms. "I'll try."

"Hey, Octavia," a smug voice said suddenly, and three heads turned to look at Echo, who was now walking along side them with her cabin mates. "Ready to lose?"

"Don't need to be," Octavia stated.

Echo scoffed. "You think you can beat me?"

"I think that if I can't, Bellamy's pod will be able to. He and I hate you almost the same amount," Octavia piped up, crossing her arms. "So I think you'd better come off your high horse before you get shoved off."

Clarke glanced at the rest of the girls from Echo's cabin. She recognized most of them from just having seen them around for the past week, but then she saw Lexa, who she hadn't seen since they'd met in the woods. When she looked at her, the brunette had already had her eyes on Clarke.

Clarke immediately tore her gaze away, because Lexa's green eyes were intense, and her heart rate suddenly jumped up.

"Whatever you say, Octavia," Echo said, clearly amused. "I'd wish you good luck, but I know that wouldn't even help your case." She turned on her heel and stalked away, and her posse followed suit obediently.

"Why do they like her?" Clarke asked, raising an eyebrow. "She's awful."

Octavia huffed. "They think they'll get to win with her."

"I guess empirical evidence helps her case," Raven muttered, looking suddenly much less excited for the rest of the day.

"Cheer up!" Octavia exclaimed, wiping any unhappiness from her face in exchange for the huge grin that appeared. "Today is our day!"

After breakfast in the mess hall, everyone was antsy and ready for the competition to start. Clarke, on one hand, was feeling a mix of dread and excitement. On the other hand, she was still trying to figure out this whole camp thing. The only thing that she could really pinpoint about its whole deal was that it definitely got teenagers to focus on, and dedicate themselves to, something for once.

"Good morning campers!" some adult said into a megaphone at the head of the mess hall. "Great to see that you're all excited for our first competition of the summer. We're starting off pretty easy – kick ball! We'll have rounds throughout the day, ending with the finale game this afternoon between two pods! If you don't know how to play kick ball, I suggest that you learn quickly. Starting rounds start in half an hour in the fields! Good luck everyone!"

Octavia sighed. "They always have kick ball."

"You don't look happy about it," Raven commented, narrowing her eyes. Octavia just shrugged, and Raven looked to Clarke. "Ever played kick ball before?"

"Nope," Clarke answered. "I feel like I've seen people play it, but I've never."

Octavia crossed her arms. "C'mon, we're gonna gather everyone from our pod at the field early and do some prep. We can't have half of us clueless."

A record five minutes later, all of Pod One was circled up on the big, empty field. Octavia was taking charge of everyone, even the boys, and no one seemed to object.

"Guys!" Octavia yelled, silencing everyone. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Octavia Blake. I've been going to this camp for years, like some of you, and I've spent all of those years losing to the infamous Echo. This year will not be the same. Do you hear me? We're going to crush Pod Six so hard this year that she'll be glad that she can't come back next year. You guys got it?"

There were a bunch of shouts of enthusiasm.

"Right," Octavia continued, oh so seriously, "so, who doesn't know how to play kick ball?"

The next twenty minutes until other people began filing onto the field were spent with the people who knew kick ball teaching everyone else how to play. Clarke caught on quickly. It was kind of like baseball, but with a big rubber ball and no bat. Not too difficult to understand.

There were three different kick ball fields set up, each with its own four bases, across the huge field. The first games were divided simply – Pod One versus Pod Two, Three versus Four, and Five versus Six. Octavia seemed upset about this. Clarke questioned her about it. "What's up? Isn't that good? We're not facing Echo's team yet."

"Yeah, that's fine," Octavia agreed, "but I wanted Pod Four to get them first."

"Why?" Raven asked. "Who's in Pod Four? That hot tattoo guy, right?"

"Yeah, him and Bellamy," Octavia answered, shrugging it off.

Raven held up a hand. "Wait, I'm still confused about who Bellamy is."

"You guys are so slow," Octavia said, laughing suddenly as she looked at Clarke, who looked just as confused as Raven's comment sounded. "Usually whoever I hang out with every year gets it after a week. But it's been a week, and you guys are still clueless."

"What are you talking about?" Clarke asked, completely confused.

"Bellamy is my brother you weirdos," Octavia said, shaking her head. "Come on, we've gotta go cream Pod Two."

Somehow, they actually did beat Pod Two, by one point. The only reason they got that point lead was because Octavia argued with the guy who was the referee for a solid fifteen minutes about a penalty that may or may not have actually occurred. Other than that, Pod One didn't have much of an advantage over the other team.

Which was why two hours later, when they had to face Pod Four – who won their first game as well – they totally lost. Clarke learned that she had an awful kick, and that running took a lot of energy that she didn't have. The one time that she made it to first base, she was tagged out on her way to second base. It was at that point that she wished that she'd brought better sports bras with her. Her boobs were a generous size, and right now, that was not helping her out at all.

So Pod Four beat Pod One, after the majority of each other them having to listen to the Octavia-Bellamy bickering. Had Octavia not said that they were siblings before the game, Clarke would've known for sure by the end of that game.

Octavia wasn't too upset about losing, because she said that Bellamy still had the chance to beat Echo's team.

He didn't succeed, though. It did end up being Pod Four versus Pod Six, but Echo's team pulled through with a two point higher score, making them the winner of the first challenge.

Octavia was actually so put off by it that she opted to not go to the bonfire that was happening at the end of the day. However, Clarke and Raven both went gladly – wearing their bikinis under their shorts and tank tops. They made their way to the lake, where the bonfire was at, at around eight that night.

They deliberately avoided the area where Echo was, talking to her crew and sneering at anyone who dared to look over at them. Instead, they found themselves with Bellamy and that tattooed guy.

"Hey, you're Octavia's brother, right?" Raven asked him. "Bellamy?"

"Yeah," Bellamy answered, nodding. "Good game today. I recognize you two from her pod."

Clarke laughed. "Good game my ass. We did so bad. Octavia's gonna kill us all."

"She always does this," Bellamy admitted. "Every year, she makes this big deal about her mission to destroy Echo, and she hasn't done it yet. Granted, neither have I, but I don't have the rivalry thing that she has. She's hardcore."

"Yeah, we know," Clarke agreed, shaking her head. "All I know is that my muscles are dead and I think I'm still dehydrated. And I've drank like six water bottles since our last game."

"Not your thing, huh?" the tattooed guy asked, laughing. "Some of the stuff gets easier."

"Is it all this active?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, I thought this camp was for people from every sort of activity. I'm pretty sure drawing doesn't coincide with constant physical activity," Clarke said, crossing her arms.

"No, it's not. Some of the activities become, like... optional. Like, there will be two different kinds of competitions at once, and the pods all divide in two. Usually those are two totally opposite things," he explained.

Clarke let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness."

He laughed again. "I'm Lincoln."

"Clarke," Clarke introduced, "and this is Raven." Raven nodded, smiling.

* * *

Lexa was getting bored. She was bored of Echo's constant talking of their win that day – which had barely counted since Lexa was pretty sure that Echo had been pushing the rules and loopholes to their boundaries.

She left the girl's group at the bonfire after being there for about ten minutes, instead going down toward the lake and losing her shirt and her shorts, wading into the water. She was tired from the exercise, though it wasn't something she wasn't used to. Swimming, however, was definitely more of her thing. She wondered if that would at all come into play during this camp.

She didn't see Anya anywhere, and eventually left the water in favor of trying to find company that wasn't in the form of the obnoxious Echo.

She saw a few people that she'd seen around over the week, even some that she'd had conversations with, but didn't feel like approaching any of them. Then her eye caught on a blonde girl, sitting up on a rock with something small in her hand, drawing shapes with it on the stone in front of her.

Lexa tried not to smile a little as she approached Clarke. "You like rocks?"

Clarke's blue eyes slowly left the area where she was drawing and looked up to Lexa's eyes. "They're nicer to sit on than dirt."

"Fair enough," Lexa agreed. "What are you drawing?"

"Nothing," Clarke answered, sighing. "This thing will barely make any marks on the rock anyway." She tossed the little rock or whatever thing she'd been holding away.

"Why are you over here all alone?" Lexa wondered.

"I could ask you the same question," Clarke tossed back, narrowing her eyes at the brunette, who tried not to let her amusement show through on her face.

"I saw you sitting alone," Lexa answered easily. "You?"

Clarke huffed. "I don't know. Octavia didn't come down here, and Raven found some guy to flirt with or something. I don't really know anyone else. And I hardly know you, so why did you come over here to talk to me?"

Lexa didn't answer, instead gesturing to a spot on the rock next to Clarke. "Can I sit?" Clarke's eyes glanced over Lexa for a moment before she nodded, scooting over a bit. Lexa sat down in the spot, pulling her legs up and crossing them. From the rock, it was easy to look over the whole lake area, and Lexa wondered if Clarke had been trying to draw the bonfire or something. "So, you draw?"

"Yeah," Clarke muttered. "Not exactly the best skill to utilize in a kick ball game. Congrats on your win."

Lexa was surprised to hear the congratulations, because she knew that Clarke, nor her entire pod, liked Echo or her pod. "Thanks, I guess," Lexa replied. She sighed. "I wish I wasn't on Echo's team."

"Why? Isn't she gonna pull a big win?" Clarke asked, and Lexa could sense Clarke's head turn slightly as she looked at Lexa.

"Probably," Lexa agreed, "but she's way too intense. And I don't like that people can label me based on the fact that I have to hang out with her."

"I mean, you don't really have to. You just have to live with her and compete on her team," Clarke said.

Lexa shrugged. "It still sucks. My best friend is the reason I even decided to come here this year, and she's in a completely different pod. I'm definitely not coming back here next year."

"Are you sixteen?" Clarke asked, sounding surprised and getting Lexa to turn her head to look at the blonde.

"Yeah," Lexa answered. "Nearly seventeen."

Clarke's lips turned up into a smile – it was the first time that Lexa had actually seen her smile. Lexa couldn't help it as her heart skipped a beat. "Oh. Thought you'd be nearly eighteen. You don't look sixteen."

"I get that a lot," Lexa admitted.

"Your friend is seventeen then?" Clarke asked. Lexa nodded. "Same. But Echo won't be here next year, so there's no way it'll be this insane."

"I guess," Lexa said, sighing. "I just know my mom will want me to come back. She's been trying to get me to go to summer camp forever."

"I'm so glad my mom can't try to send me here again next year," Clarke admitted. "It's not as bad as I thought it'd be, if I'm being completely honest. But I'm still trying to figure out why mom even suggested I come here. She's so fucking hard to read."

"Sucks," Lexa commented, wondering what Clarke meant, but not wanting to push for any information. She was honestly just grateful that this beautiful girl that she'd accidentally caused to fall into the dirt was talking to her.

"It does," Clarke agreed, pulling her gaze from Lexa and instead looking down at the faint marks she'd created on the rock. "So, you gonna get in trouble with Echo for talking to me?"

"Don't care," Lexa answered. She'd heard what Anya had told her on the first day – that it would be best for her to stay on Echo's good side since she would be living in the same cabin as her for two months. But this was her summer to do with what she pleased. And she couldn't deny the little crush she had on Clarke, and whether or not it was even possible for Clarke to return those feelings, she couldn't abandon them. "Not like she's paying attention anyway. She can't stop talking about her amazing victory today."

"Gross," Clarke muttered. "Well, my pod got creamed."

"Really?"

"Octavia's so competitive. She spent fifteen minutes arguing a penalty, and that's the only reason we even won the first game," Clarke admitted. "Then we got destroyed."

"At least you didn't have to play three times," Lexa said.

"Doesn't seem to have bothered you much. If I had, I'd probably be asleep right now."

Lexa let out a light laugh. "I'm a swimmer. I'm in shape enough for some kick ball."

"That makes one of us," Clarke said, and Lexa felt a smile appear on her face, and she pulled her gaze from the blonde before she could realize that Lexa was staring.

"Clarke!" someone called suddenly, and Lexa saw that brunette girl – Raven? - standing a little way away from them. "I'm going back up. You coming?"

"Yeah," Clarke called back, sliding her feet down to the ground and standing up. She looked to Lexa quickly before leaving. "I'll... see you... sometime."

"Yep," Lexa returned, smiling, and Clarke couldn't fight the smile that appeared on her own face before she turned away. She froze, though, before heading over to Raven, and looked back at Lexa.

"For what it's worth, I don't think you deserve to be judged by the fact that you have to be in Echo's pod either," she said. "You're really different from her."

Lexa felt a smile playing on her face. "Thanks."

Clarke met up with Raven, feeling slightly upset about leaving Lexa. "Isn't that the girl from Echo's team? Lexa?"

"Yep," Clarke answered as they headed up toward the main part of the camp again.

"Why were you talking to her?" Raven wondered, though she didn't sound angry like Octavia might've.

"She came over and talked to me," Clarke answered. "She's actually nice, though. She's nothing like Echo."

Clarke spent the first hour of trying to sleep tossing around in her bed. She couldn't sleep – her mind was moving too fast, thinking about too many things. Usually when this happened, she had to think through the thoughts in her head, so she finally just let out a long breath and tried to pinpoint what was keeping her up.

It was Lexa. The swimmer with long, dark hair that looked smooth to the touch, and a fiery intense gaze from glistening green eyes, and the tanned skin that looked smooth and without flaws in the bright sunlight or the dim light of a bonfire.

Clarke had already realized that she was beautiful – that much was easy to realize, and it was simple to admit that she was attracted to the swimmer.

She'd been prepared to ignore that attraction, until she'd realized that Lexa was sweet and adorable and with a huge potential to become Clarke's kryptonite.

Clarke was totally screwed.


	4. Chapter 4

"You said that we were going to do it if we lost," Raven reminded the other brunette, who shook her head.

"Yeah, but not right now. There needs to be a build up. If we lose the next one," Octavia insisted. "Right now, I don't want to think about stupid competitions. Let's just get breakfast."

Clarke was trudging along behind the two, sore from the previous day. She knew that she was out of shape, but she hadn't expected so much soreness.

"So," Octavia continued, "how was the bonfire last night?"

"It wasn't bad," Raven answered. "We met Lincoln, the tattooed guy. He seemed pretty cool. Then I met this guy Murphy, and he was flirting with me at first, but then he ended up being an ass. I also met these two guys Jasper and Monty who are such nerds, but they're hilarious," Raven admitted, smiling.

"Sounds fun," Octavia said, sighing. "I probably should've gone. I bet Echo and her posse will get a good laugh at the fact that I wasn't."

"Speaking of Echo's posse," Raven added, "Clarke disappeared on me and I found her hanging with Lexa."

"You sound like you're trying to tattle," Clarke said, rolling her eyes.

"So is Lexa actually chill then?" Octavia asked, getting a nod from the blonde.

"I don't think she likes Echo," Clarke offered.

Raven was giving Clarke a pointed look, and the blonde realized that Raven totally saw past her trying to be chill about Lexa. She was so busted. Octavia didn't seem to notice, though. "Well that's good, I guess," Octavia said halfheartedly. "Not that it helps out with us against Echo at all."

Octavia disappeared again at some point during the morning, and Raven and Clarke found themselves together again, with nothing to do. They ended up deciding to look around the camp and see what things there were to do. They hadn't seen much of the it the previous week, because of both of them had been in the mind to pretend like they didn't have to spend their whole summer there.

"So, Lexa," Raven said, giving Clarke a sideways glance.

"What about her?" Clarke asked, fiddling with the edge of her shirt as she became a bit self conscious.

Raven cleared her throat a little. "You like her?"

"Uh... I guess?"

"You know what I mean, Clarke," Raven said, poking her in the side. "I wouldn't blame you, anyway. She's totally hot."

"Leave me alone," Clarke muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and distancing herself from the girl, who was just grinning.

They suddenly heard something that sounded like metal on metal, and they both raised their eyebrows at one another, before immediately gravitating toward the location of the noise. A crowd of people came into their vision, and Clarke immediately noticed most of Echo's posse in the crowd, as well as some people from other pods.

The metal noise turned out to be a fencing competition – it seemed that people were challenging Echo, who looked to be pretty good at it. "Can you fence?" Clarke asked Raven, who let out a laugh.

"Uh, no."

"She thinks she's queen of the world," a familiar voice said suddenly, and Clarke turned her head to see that Lexa had suddenly appeared next to her, her arms crossed over her chest. Raven gave the girl a sideways glance, but then looked back at Echo.

"I'd challenge her if I could fence," Clarke commented. "As it seems, though, I don't do sports."

"I've gathered," Lexa commented, though her focus was on watching Echo.

Suddenly, a girl with blondish hair was approaching Lexa, and Clarke didn't particularly recognize her. "You could take her," the girl said to Lexa, who shrugged.

"She doesn't move her feet enough."

"You fence?" Raven asked suddenly, looking at Lexa, who turned her head and nodded. "So why haven't you destroyed this bitch yet?"

"I don't want to take her on if I don't know how she fights," Lexa answered, her arms still crossed and her expression focused. Clarke felt her lips turning up into a small smile, because Lexa's focused face was something adorable.

The blondish girl next to Lexa rolled her eyes at the brunette, and then looked suddenly to Clarke. "I'm Anya."

"Clarke," she replied, nodding. "This is Raven."

"You're in Octavia's pod, right?" Anya asked, getting a nod from the blonde. Lexa was still in between them, watching Echo's movements carefully. "So, you risk it for the biscuit?"

"Please don't ever say that again," Lexa said, though she smiled a small smile as she rolled her eyes. Clarke guessed that this girl Anya was the best friend that Lexa had spoken about the previous night.

"What's going on?" Octavia's voice suddenly asked, as she appeared next to Raven.

"Lexa's going to destroy Echo," Raven answered, looking at the brunette next to Clarke, who didn't seem to hear her name being mentioned. She was focusing again. None of them said anything else for a few minutes, as some guy challenged Echo, and another fight started up again. Echo beat him within a minute, and then Lexa let out a breath.

"Okay."

Anya knit her eyebrows slightly. "She'll hate you if you beat her."

Lexa raised an eyebrow at her friend and said, "It's all fun and games, isn't it?" The joking tone in her voice obvious, as she took a step toward Echo.

"Shit," Octavia breathed out, and the tension in all four of them increased as Lexa approached Echo and asked if she could try. Echo looked half amused and half offended, but she wasn't one to turn down a challenge. A few seconds later, Lexa had her gear, and Echo had hers, and they were standing opposite one another in the area surrounded by the crowd.

Most of Echo's posse looked slightly put off that someone they thought of as one of their own had challenged their ring leader, but most people didn't seem to recognize the fact that Lexa was in the same cabin as Echo anyway. Clarke didn't know anything about fencing, but she did know that watching Lexa fence was an experience. Echo was alright, but Lexa was very fluid with all of her movements, never slipping up. Every twitch of her hand was deliberate, and the duel lasted for a handful of long minutes.

In the end, Lexa touched Echo with the tip of her sword, and gasps were heard from the crowd around them. Echo had been bested.

Lexa played it off amazingly, though, just smiling a sweet smile that was so obviously fabricated, and yet so convincing. "Good fight," she said, before dropping her gear into the pile, and heading back over to the group waiting for her.

"Told you that you could take her," Anya said.

Lexa nodded, smiling.

"It's about time someone showed her that she's not a fucking goddess," Octavia grumbled. "Nice to meet you, Lexa. I'm Octavia."

"Yeah, I'm aware," Lexa commented.

"She's not happy," Anya stated suddenly, nodding to Echo, who was rather grudgingly pushing past the crowd and getting out of the area.

Lexa shrugged, pushing some of her dark hair over her shoulder, and then looked at her best friend and then at Clarke, who felt her heart jump when the electric green eyes met hers. "Anyone feel like a swim?"

That was sort of the start of Lexa's friendship with her pod's enemy pod. For the next few days, since there weren't any competitions, the brunette hung out with either her best friend, Clarke's group of friends, or both. She could tell that she had definitely rubbed Echo the wrong way, but she pretended as if she hadn't, and Echo mostly did the same.

* * *

Despite the lack of competitions through the rest of the week, the camp staff began organizing smaller things – friendly ball games, mini tournaments in less sporty things like chess. Clarke was actually surprised at how many people participated in the chess tournament, because it seemed like so many people were there for sports.

Clarke actually did the chess tournament, and she won three games before she played some guy named Wells, who managed to just barely beat her. That was on that Friday, and her loss marked the end of her time in the tournament, and she left the mess hall – where the tournament had been held.

She knew that none of her new friends had been playing, so she immediately went on the look for one of them.

Instead, as she was heading down toward the lake, two hands suddenly poked her in either side, and she squealed. Her ears immediately filled with the sound of Lexa's laugh – something she'd heard actually a few times in the past few days. It was quite a nice sound. "Mean," Clarke muttered, her lips forming a pout as she looked at the brunette, who was now walking alongside her.

"Did you finally lose at chess?" Lexa asked, ignoring the comment.

"Yeah," Clarke answered, though she was starting to not care that she'd lost. The further into the week it got, the more Clarke found herself being drawn to Lexa, and the more she'd been denying it. Raven kept bringing it up to her, and Clarke would just shake her head. She refused to talk about Lexa to either of her friends, but she knew that she liked the girl – she'd be ridiculously stupid if she couldn't tell. "Where's everyone?"

Lexa shrugged. "I don't know. I was just with Echo. She's giving everyone a pep talk."

"Exciting," Clarke commented, stopping her walk toward the lake in case any of her friends were there. She'd rather just be with Lexa, who stopped next to her. "Planning her next victory?"

"I wish I could switch pods or something," Lexa said, rolling her eyes. "Or at least cabins. It's so frustrating having to listen to her talk every time I'm trying to sleep or do anything."

"We're accepting refugees in Pod One," Clarke joked, smiling. Lexa gave a wide smile in return.

"I wish."

It was later that night, when Raven asked her what she'd done after her chess thing, and the blonde admitted that she'd been with Lexa, that Clarke finally wiggled out of her denial.

"Yeah, I guess I do like her," Clarke finally admitted to Raven as they walked back from dinner to the pod. Octavia had gone off to say something to Bellamy or something, and that's when Raven had asked her again about Lexa. "She's just like... I don't know. Captivating."

"Fair enough," Raven said, smiling. "I already told you that I don't blame you for liking her, so don't worry."

Clarke shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, well. I wouldn't really consider liking her a good thing. For all I know, she's got a boyfriend back home or something." Raven's eyes were already rolling.

"Don't jump to conclusions, okay? That's how you'll end up losing her before you even get her," the brunette stated, crossing her arms and drawing a sigh from the blonde, who nodded.

"I guess you're right." They entered the pod, and started toward their separate cabins. "See you tomorrow."

Clarke could barely sleep at all that night – her thoughts were centered on green eyes and dark hair and a bright laugh, and how could she sleep when it might make that picture disappear?


	5. Chapter 5

That Saturday, the second one at Camp Unite, was the first day that Clarke woke up to a missing Octavia. She naturally assumed that the girl was working on some grand scheme or plot, and got up as normal, getting changed and using the bathroom. At that point, she was actually one of the last people awake. Octavia had gotten into a routine of waking the blonde up way too early, and since she hadn't, Clarke wouldn't be surprised if she'd missed breakfast.

She left her cabin once she was dressed, with her bikini under her clothes in case she decided to cool off at all that day, and immediately looked up at the sky. The sun was getting high, but it didn't look like it was noon yet. She glanced around the area of Pod One and saw no one else around, so she just started walking toward the mess hall in the hopes that she could either grab breakfast late or lunch early.

They were getting lunch ready when Clarke got there, and she eagerly grabbed one of the served sandwiches and ate it alone in the nearly empty mess hall. A few other people were around, just sitting and talking or also grabbing an early lunch.

After eating, Clarke set out to find one of her new friends. She didn't really expect to be able to find Octavia, but she assumed that she could at least find Raven around somewhere.

She didn't, and instead found herself with her legs crossed on the rock near the lake that she'd discovered on Monday night at the bonfire. She found the little white rock that she'd tried to draw with, and she picked it up, testing it once again against the smooth stone. It made a light line, but it was barely visible.

Clarke looked up, beginning to be aware of the heat that was starting to cause her clothes to stick to her. She looked at the water, wondering if it was worth it to go swim by herself, when her eyes suddenly caught on a certain brunette making her way down to the lake from the camp. She was with Echo's usual posse, but the ringleader was nowhere to be seen.

Lexa didn't seem to notice Clarke at all for about ten minutes, and during that time, Clarke found herself unable to tear her eyes from her. When Echo wasn't around, it seemed like she could actually get along with the rest of the group. Maybe most of them were only friends with Echo for the reputation elevation, and were actually decent people.

Clarke didn't linger on that idea for long, because her mind was too focused on the tanned body clad in a small amount of clothes, and long dark hair that looked somehow perfect despite the sweat inducing temperature.

Though she didn't really mean to stare for so long, the blonde couldn't stop herself. She only managed to drop her eyes over to the water when she saw Lexa's head turning toward her general vicinity. She didn't look away for too long, though, because once she caught in her peripheral vision that the brunette was coming toward her, she looked up as bravely as she could.

"Where have you been all morning?" Lexa asked, a smile on her face as she approached the blonde. "I saw Octavia and Raven earlier without you."

"Octavia didn't wake me up," Clarke answered, though she was wondering why exactly she hadn't. "I just woke up like half an hour ago."

"Extra sleep sounds nice," Lexa commented, sitting next to Clarke, "but I usually wake up when the sun comes up, so it's hard for me to sleep in."

"I usually live to sleep in, but I feel like I've missed a big chunk of the day by doing it," Clarke admitted. "My whole pod was empty when I got up."

"Well, you're up now!" Lexa offered, smiling. "Feel like a swim?"

"You crazy swimmer person, always wanting to swim," Clarke teased, though she had no objection. "Sure."

Lexa hopped off of the rock happily, her hands grabbing the bottom of her tank firmly and tearing it off of her body in one clean movement. Clarke's gaze lingered on Lexa's bare midsection for a second longer than it should have, before she also got off of the rock and started stripping off her clothing.

Whether or not Lexa noticed was a mystery to the blonde, who hoped that she wasn't blushing visibly. Luckily, the heat would've been an easy excuse for a red face.

They were in the water a few seconds later, and Clarke had to admit that it felt amazing. "Why do you always go sit alone?" Lexa wondered casually, once they were mostly submerged.

"I don't always go sit alone. You just seem to only ever see me when I am alone," Clarke corrected, rolling her eyes as a smile appeared on her face.

Lexa hummed, tilting her head and quirking an eyebrow up a little bit. "I wonder why that is." Clarke furrowed her eyebrows slightly, feeling like she was missing something, but Lexa suddenly went under the water. It was only a few seconds later that she popped back up. "Ah, it feels so nice."

"Being outside in the summer is so gross," Clarke muttered.

"What has the outside ever done to you?" Lexa teased. "You're probably the only person I've ever met who hates nature so much."

"I don't hate nature!" Clarke defended. "Nature can exist all it wants, and people can enjoy it and experience it. I'd just rather be inside while all of that goes on."

"But the water's nice, isn't it?" Lexa pointed out, getting a nod from the blonde, who couldn't lie that the water felt amazing. "Wanna see something that Anya showed me a few nights ago?"

"Does it involve going somewhere?" Clarke asked.

"Yeah, but I'm a swimmer, so if you start to drown, I'll save you," Lexa promised, surprising Clarke as she grabbed the blonde's hand and began to pull her further into the lake and slightly to the right.

Clarke, surprisingly, found herself swimming after the brunette, who released her hand not too long after grabbing it in order to swim properly. She almost expected herself to complain, but it wasn't long before they were heading toward a little dock off on the side of the water. Clarke was pretty sure that they could've walked there just fine if they'd wanted to go through the trees, but she didn't mind the swimming. It was peaceful, and watching Lexa swim just in front of her with her perfect strokes wasn't really a bad thing either. It was really only like a ten minute swim anyway.

Lexa climbed up onto the dock once they got there, and Clarke followed her clumsily, letting out a long breath as she sat on the edge of it next to the brunette. She looked ahead of her, where Lexa's eyes were trained, and could see nearly the whole expansion of the lake. It went off very far to their right, and Clarke could barely see the tree line at the end of it, and to the left, she could make out the lakeside by the camp. The forest on any side of the lake was standing in its green glory, and Clarke suddenly felt the urge to draw the whole scene.

"It's pretty, huh?" Lexa asked, and Clarke realized that the girl's green eyes had moved from the view to the blonde. Clarke nodded, turning her head to meet the swimmer's gaze. She nodded in response, suddenly unable to trust her mouth to form words correctly. Her proximity to the brunette and the girl's absolutely captivating eyes was petrifying, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. "Anya told me that this is where she always came to when she needed a break from Echo."

"I can't say I blame her," Clarke replied.

"Same," Lexa agreed, a half smile appearing on her face. "Sorry I made you actually do exercise for once."

Clarke felt a smile appear on her face. "I survived, so I think I can forgive you for that one."

"Good to know," Lexa said cheekily.

"Next time, though, you better watch your back," the blonde teased, biting the inside of her lip once the words had left her mouth.

Lexa raised an eyebrow, and Clarke felt her heart start pumping quicker. "Oh really?" the brunette asked, "I'll have to keep that in mind." It took Clarke a moment to realize that the girl was smirking, and she panicked mentally, wondering if she was being too obvious.

She dropped her gaze to the ground, but she couldn't keep it there for long, because Lexa's eyes were one end of a magnet, and Clarke's were the other. Lexa wasn't smirking when Clarke looked back up, though, and her gaze was directed at the blonde's lips.

Clarke felt every thought and feeling telling her to kiss Lexa, but her fast heart rate and the heat she felt in her face was making her weak rather than bold. She didn't want to kiss Lexa any less, but she couldn't be the first one to make the move. All she could do was hope that the other girl would lean in first.

Lexa didn't, though, instead eventually tearing her gaze away from Clarke all together and turning her head back out to the water. Clarke looked down at her lap, wondering if she should say anything, but opted not to as she tried to calm her heart rate.

It was a silent ten minutes later before Lexa let out a long breath. "Do you wanna walk back, or swim?"

"Considering that we left our shoes at that rock, I'm thinking walking isn't the best idea," Clarke answered, looking to the brunette with a raised eyebrow. Lexa let out a light laugh, and whatever nervous tension had been between them a moment ago was released.

"Fair enough. Are you good to swim back?"

Clarke nodded. "I guess your physical abilities are rubbing off on me," she joked, and Lexa rolled her eyes, sliding off of the dock and into the water suddenly. Some of the cold water splashed up onto Clarke's bare legs, and she squealed a bit. The sun had warmed and mostly dried her skin already. When Lexa popped out from under the water, Clarke pouted. "You splashed me."

"Oh, poor you," Lexa teased, before suddenly grabbing both of Clarke's legs and pulling her down into the water, causing the blonde to scream loudly. She went completely under the water, in a near panic, before she realized that Lexa had a hold on her body, and instantly dragged her up above the water.

"Oh my god!" Clarke exclaimed, once she had reclaimed air into her lungs. "I can't believe you did that!" Lexa was laughing, and she released her hold around Clarke's midsection once the blonde was swimming on her own. "Why are you laughing? Oh my god!"

Lexa calmed herself a little, but a wide grin was still spread over her face. "You're hilarious to scare."

Clarke narrowed her eyes, and Lexa let out another small laugh.

"Also your angry face is adorable," she added. Now, Clarke felt a dark blush spread across her face, and she resisted the urge to splash it with water to try and make it less obvious. "That's the face you tried to make at me when I freaked you out in the woods that one time, too. It was absolutely hilarious."

Clarke abandoned her effort to look angry, because it clearly wasn't working, so she pouted instead. "Don't laugh at me."

"But you're so cute," Lexa insisted, causing Clarke to blush again. The blonde immediately felt self conscious as she realized that her face was probably as bright as a tomato at this point, and she ducked underwater and began to swim back toward the camp. She heard Lexa laughing for a moment, but when she came up for air again, the brunette was swimming next to her. "Okay, I'm sorry."

Clarke just flashed the brunette a grin, because honestly, she couldn't be mad at Lexa for calling her cute. She was just flustered with embarrassment. "I'll race you back."

Both of Lexa's eyebrows shot up. "Are you sure you want to take that?" Clarke immediately reconsidered her suggestion, and shook her head.

"Actually, yeah no," she said. "I'd be swimming back by myself if I was racing you."

"True," Lexa teased, smiling. "So. What competition thing do you think they'll have on Monday?"

"Probably more sports," Clarke answered, rolling her eyes, "because apparently that's what everyone here likes to do."

"They did chess yesterday," Lexa reminded her, but Clarke just shook her head, and the brunette smiled a small smile and shook her head fondly.

When they reached the lakeside by the camp again, they both made their way over to the rock where their clothes were laying. Neither of them moved to put the clothes back on, though, because they were dripping wet. Instead, they pushed the clothing aside and sat side by side on the rock. "Did you see where Octavia and Raven were going this morning?"

"No. Looked like they were heading down here at the time, though," Lexa answered. "Why? Wanna abandon me to go hang out with them?" She gave Clarke a pout, and though Clarke knew that Lexa was messing around, the blonde could not handle the pout. It was absolutely adorable.

"You have friends," Clarke teased, though the answer to Lexa's question was a profound no. "But if you insist, I'll stay right here."

Lexa grinned. "I do have friends, but Anya met some guy from her Pod that she likes. Apparently he's planning on going to the same college as her after her senior year, so he's all the rage."

"Exciting," Clarke said, slightly sarcastically.

Lexa let out a light laugh. "I guess I can't blame her. I would probably abandon her to go hang out with someone that I like." Clarke saw the slight glint in Lexa's eyes, and her mind wandered for a second, before she cut off any thoughts going in that way.

"How long have you and her been friends for?"

"Almost forever," Lexa answered, smiling. "She's been my best friend since like... I was in third grade. She moved into my neighborhood, and at first she got really annoyed by me always following her around because she was in the grade above me, but eventually we got really close."

Clarke smiled at the happy look on the brunette's face. "That's nice. I don't have any friends like that, really. I somehow get like all new friends every year, because there are just so many fake people and shit. The one friend I had for like three years I ended up dating, and then we broke up, and it was just awkward. We don't talk anymore."

"Why do you guys break up?" Lexa wondered, tilting her head.

"She was in the grade above me," Clarke answered, giving the brunette a sad smile, "and we were going to do long distance, until she decided that long distance meant she could sleep with whoever she wanted to."

"Well shit," Lexa commented, furrowing her eyebrows. "That sucks."

Clarke nodded, making a mental note that Lexa hadn't reacted to the fact that Clarke had been with a girl. That was a good sign.. "Yeah, well. That was almost a year ago, I'm over her."

"That's good," Lexa said. "So, where do you wanna go to college?"

"To hell if I know," Clarke answered, letting out a light laugh. "Sometimes I consider putting college off for a year, because I literally have no clue what I want to do. A year of no high school and just working and thinking and planning sounds like a utopia."

"You can always do that," Lexa reminded her. "There's no rule that says you have to go to college the second you graduate high school."

"Unless you have my mom, then it's pretty much a rule," Clarke said, rolling her eyes.

"So get your own place, then she can't stop you. You'll be eighteen before next summer anyway," Lexa stated. Clarke nodded, that was something that she'd been considering.

"I really want to go to school for art or something, but my mom wants me to do literally anything else. It's difficult." Clarke let out a sigh. "But we should talk about something else. The best thing about this place is that I get to block out all thought of my parents if I want to."

"Sounds like a plan," Lexa agreed, smiling. "Have you had lunch?"

"Yeah, but it was more my breakfast. If you're hungry, I'll go up there with you," Clarke offered.

They put their clothes and shoes back on and made their way up through the camp and to the mess hall, where quite a few people were eating late lunches. Lexa went and grabbed herself a sandwich while Clarke found a place to sit, and the brunette joined her immediately after.

They talked a while longer at the table, and when Lexa was done, they walked aimlessly around the camp. They began to talk about anything they could think of, and at some point, Lexa was saying, "Yeah, Anya always makes fun of me about getting beat up, because this bitch slapped me one time. So if you ever hear Anya reference that, I did not get beat up."

"Why did she slap you?" Clarke asked, after letting out a laugh.

"I was dating this girl once, and her ex saw us together and flipped shit. And... I may have said a thing or two to her face that would be considered rude or something... but that bitch came at me and slapped me, and I would've beaten her up if the girl I was dating hadn't jumped in. Anya thinks that because I didn't fight back, that it counts as getting beat up."

Clarke didn't say anything for a second, because her brain needed a moment to grasp the mention of Lexa dating a girl. She tried not to take too long before saying, "Well, damn."

"Yeah, funny thing is, that girl dumped me the next week to get back with that crazy ex," Lexa said, rolling her eyes.

"Dramatic," Clarke commented.

Lexa was nodding in agreement, and they were quiet for a few minutes, just walking through the slowly cooling air side by side, when suddenly, Lexa grabbed Clarke's hand and stopped moving. Clarke immediately furrowed her brow slightly, stopping as well and facing the brunette.

"What's up?" she asked, trying to think about more than Lexa's hand holding hers.

"I want to apologize," the slightly taller girl said, causing Clarke to be even more confused.

"Wait, for what?"

"For not doing this earlier." Before Clarke could question what she meant, the brunette's lips were pressed against hers. Clarke hardly had time to be surprised before she was leaning into the girl. Her heart rate was climbing as she became aware of the fact that she was kissing Lexa, and continued to do so when she felt Lexa's tongue poke out of her mouth and touch Clarke's lips.

Clarke parted her own, accepting the furthering of the kiss, and feeling herself melting into the brunette's embrace – her hands had at some point moved to Clarke's waist.

The kiss ended after a moment, and Lexa released her hold on Clarke and pulled her lips away. Clarke took in a breath and then said, "Apology accepted."

Lexa immediately grinned at the response, and Clarke felt yet another blush rise to her cheeks.

And yeah, this girl totally had her.


	6. Chapter 6

It was the next morning, when Octavia poked Clarke to wake her up, that the blonde finally saw her cabin mate again. "Where the hell were you all day yesterday?" she muttered as she woke up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

"Raven and I went into the woods to get supplies," Octavia answered, grinning from her bunk. They were talking in hushed voices, because of the other sleeping girls in the cabin.

"Define supplies."

"Well I brought this spray paint with me," Octavia started, getting Clarke to furrow her eyebrows in confusion, "and it's pretty good as far as staying on wood. But I needed to go get a bunch of of these berries in the woods that smell like shit to mix with it. So when I use it, it'll smell gross."

"How did you even open a spray can?" Clarke demanded.

Octavia grinned. "I had to use Raven's genius. Anyway, it's perfect. Come on."

"What are we doing?" Clarke demanded, rubbing her eyes before carefully following her friend.

"We are going to enjoy the day, because we know that whether or not we beat Echo tomorrow, we will have satisfaction of some sort," Octavia answered.

That was the mindset that Octavia kept for the rest of the day, as she, Clarke and Raven spent the day hanging out. They went and met up with Bellamy and his friends from his cabin – Lincoln included. Octavia, despite her original comment from two weeks prior, didn't pass out the first time she talked to him. In fact, they actually sort of hit it off. As they merged their group of three with Bellamy, Lincoln and their friend Murphy, Octavia began to fall into her own little world talking to him.

It didn't bother Clarke, she was just carrying on a conversation with Bellamy, who seemed a little less crazy than his sister. Raven began to get quieter the more Octavia flirted with Lincoln, and Clarke couldn't help but notice.

She didn't respond to her friend's strange behavior until Murphy tried to flirt with the brunette, who just snapped at him suddenly and began to storm off.

Octavia didn't seem to notice – she and Lincoln had moved away a little bit.

Murphy looked completely confused. "I said like two words," he said.

"I'll go see what's up," Clarke offered, letting out a light sigh and following after the girl. It took her a minute to catch her, and she only did once they were off in the woods, around the same area that they'd first gone to laze around at the beginning of the camp. "Raven, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Raven snapped, sitting down on the ground next to a tree, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. "I want to be alone."

"Is this about Octavia?" Clarke asked, her voice quiet.

Raven's eyes shot open. "Why would it be about Octavia?" Clarke shrugged, taking a seat in front of Raven and leaning against another tree.

"You got all quiet when she started flirting with Lincoln," the blonde answered.

"Did not," Raven muttered, dropping her gaze.

"You also spent all day with her to pick berries that smell like shit," Clarke added.

"So?" Clarke didn't say anything in response, just searching Raven's face and then looking down at her lap. She began picking at the grass on the ground, and only when she heard Raven let out a sigh did she look back up. "Yeah, it's about Octavia."

"You like her?"

Raven kept her gaze on the ground. "I guess."

"I see the appeal," Clarke offered, "she's pretty spontaneous."

"Well, we both know you understand the appeal to brunettes in general," Raven said, clearly not wanting to talk about her situation.

Clarke rolled her eyes. "I've dated a blonde before."

"That's weird," Raven stated. "You would look good with a brunette. I can picture you and Lexa." Clarke's cheeks flushed red, because she hadn't really thought much of the previous day, but the mention of Lexa directly immediately brought the thought of her lips. "Can we d something? I don't want to think about Octavia right now."

"What do you wanna do?" Clarke wondered.

"Anything," Raven pleaded.

They both stood up, and started back toward the camp, as Clarke tried to think of something for them to do to distract Raven. It was nearing lunch time, and they were both probably getting hungry, so they seemed to both decide to start toward the mess hall. "What do you think the competition tomorrow is going to be?"

Raven smirked suddenly. "I already know what it's going to be."

"How?"

"I heard some of the camp directors talking about it this morning. They said it was some sort of scavenger hunt," the brunette admitted. "Can't be too hard, right?"

"There's like a billion places to hide things here, though," Clarke commented, looking around the camp around them.

"True," Raven agreed.

"You two ready to lose tomorrow?" someone called suddenly, drawing both of their gazes over to Echo, who was walking out of Pod Six, followed by her groupies, Lexa included, though the brunette was already rolling her eyes at the call.

"Fuck off," Raven snapped back, clearly not in the mood to deal with anyone. Echo just smirked and continued on walking to wherever the hell she was going, but Lexa didn't follow the group, instead making her way over to Clarke and Raven.

"What are you guys up to?" she asked, smiling.

"Getting lunch," Raven answered, and Clarke found herself becoming a shy bundle of nerves.

"Wanna join?" she offered, smiling.

"Already ate," Lexa admitted, her smile dropping a bit, "plus Anya wants me to hang out with her today. I'll see you later, though."

"Yeah," Clarke returned. "See you."

Lexa gave her a wide smile, and then started off in a different direction. Clarke found her eyes following the girl instinctively. Suddenly, Raven nudged her hard with her elbow, and Clarke winced, immediately glaring at the girl.

"Damn, Lexa turns Clarke into a little pile of mush!"

"Shut up!" Clarke snapped. "She does not!"

"Lemme guess, you hung out with Lexa all day yesterday?" Raven asked, quirking up an eyebrow as she started up to the mess hall again. Clarke let out a sigh as she started to follow.

"Yes, I did."

"And?"

Clarke crossed her arms. "And what? What do you want to hear?"

"What happened that made you so shy and mushy a second ago?" Raven demanded, raising both of her eyebrows at the blonde.

"Nothing," Clarke muttered. "She just... kissed me."

"Why didn't you say anything about that?" Raven exclaimed, her jaw dropped.

Clarke shrugged her shoulders, sure that her face was flushed. "Whatever, it's not a big deal."

"Sure it's not," Raven said smugly, and Clarke didn't let the light teasing bother her, because she had clearly distracted her friend, and that was the goal.

* * *

That night, Octavia questioned what had made Raven run off, but the older girl had made up some lie, and Clarke had gone along with it. Who was she to force anyone to embrace any feelings that they had?

Even though it did suck that her two new friends were in this situation.

Octavia didn't seem too worried about it after hearing the lie, though whether or not she really believed whatever it was, Clarke wasn't exactly sure.

The next morning, everyone was up bright and early after getting knocks on their cabin doors from the camp coordinators. Octavia was more hyped than anyone, and made sure that everyone from her and Clarke's cabin were up and ready to go within half an hour of hearing the knock.

They were some of the first to get to the mess hall for breakfast as well, and almost everyone spent all of breakfast wondering what that day's competition was going to be. Clarke and Raven just kept exchanging knowing looks, and sure enough, when one of the adults stood up to announce the competition, her words were, "Today, we will be doing a campsite wide scavenger hunt. There's a list of twenty items that each pod must successfully collect. As each pod finishes, they will be be required to return their items to the mess hall to be reviewed. Should no pod finish, everyone will bring what they did find to the mess hall tonight, and whoever had the most items will be the winner. You may organize your searches in any way that you would like, but right now, I need one representative from every pod to come get as many lists as your pod will need."

Octavia was up before anyone, and aside from Pod Six, which was obviously led by Echo, the other pods took longer to figure out who was going to go up for them. It was almost like an announcement of who the leaders were. Clarke wasn't too surprised when she saw Bellamy get up for Pod Four, but she didn't recognize the other people from pods two, three or five.

Octavia brought back enough lists for everyone in the pod, and they all met back up in front of the Pod One cabins for her to pass them out.

Twenty items didn't seem too challenging for thirty-two people to collect in the period of one day, but some of the items were very specific. For example, a rock shaped a certain way, or a note that had been deliberately hidden in the woods somewhere by the coordinators.

Eventually, they grouped some people together to find the harder things together, and the rest of the people each got one easier item to locate. Clarke was not placed in a group, though she didn't really mind.

Her item to find was one of the things down by the lakeside. She had to find an abandoned hermit crab shell.

When they all split up, Clarke noticed that the other pods seemed to have separated out their people similarly, because most people seemed to be alone as they left the edges of the camp.

Plenty of people weren't looking for anything yet, though, and Clarke wondered if the items they were looking for were easy to find. Clarke imagined that it would be more beneficial to get everything as fast as possible, in case they managed to all find their items first.

So she headed down to the lakeside, and began to walk along the edge of the lake and along the treeline, looking at the sandy mud covering the ground and scanning for shells.

She was beginning to get bored, when someone suddenly snatched her hand, stopping her movement and causing her to gasp in surprise. She immediately turned to see a grinning Lexa. "Hey!" the brunette chirped.

"Why do you always need to freak me out in greeting? Normal people just say 'Hey!' without the added terrifying gesture," Clarke said, rolling her eyes at the girl, who was still just grinning. She hadn't released Clarke's hand, though, and the blonde felt her heart pounding in her chest.

"Looking for shells by any chance?" Lexa asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, you're just as screwed as I am, then," the brunette said, starting to continue the path that Clarke had been walking, her hand still intertwined with the blonde's. Clarke followed alongside her. "Apparently, there used to be a lot more hermit crabs around here, and now they're all but gone. I suppose that's why Echo said I should look for it. I don't think she really likes me."

"To be fair, you don't like her either," Clarke commented, quirking up an eyebrow.

Lexa smirked. "Yeah, true. Anyway. I guess I didn't get stuck with the worst company ever for shell searching. How'd you get stuck on shell duty?"

"I basically took whatever was left after everyone picked. I don't really care that much," Clarke admitted.

"Lame," Lexa teased. "I thought you'd ask for something easy so that you could escape nature sooner."

"I guess I got lucky that you're here then, because nature sucks less when you're here." The blonde was actually surprised when she realized what she'd said, and the brunette looked slightly surprised as well, though not at all put off.

"Lucky you," she replied, smiling down at the ground for a moment before looking back at Clarke. The blonde blushed and then looked back at the mud, slightly hoping that she wouldn't find the shell she needed, or else she would have to leave Lexa's company. "So! Did you ever find out what Octavia and Raven were doing all day on Saturday?"

"Yeah, Octavia was apparently finding ways to create the smelliest spray paint on Earth," Clarke explained.

"Uh... why?"

Clarke let out a light laugh. "Who knows? I think it's part of whatever revenge plot she has in the case that you guys win today." Lexa's nose crinkled.

"Does that mean that my cabin is going to stink if I win?"

"Maybe," Clarke replied, letting out a light laugh. "For your sake, I guess you just better hope that we win instead."

Lexa quirked an eyebrow, looking back at the blonde, and getting blue eyes to meet green ones. "Sounds like that's for your sake, not mine."

"You don't want to sleep in a smelly cabin, do you?" Clarke asked, smiling shyly and batting her eyelashes at the brunette.

"Oh come on, I'm not going to let you win just because you bat your pretty little lashes at me, Clarke."

A smirk came to Clarke's face. "I guess it was worth a shot." Lexa rolled her eyes, but her lips were formed into a fond smile.

"You better keep your eyes on the ground if you really wanna win, because I'm feeling slightly competitive today."

"Oh, so you're actually just here to distract me from my task?"

Lexa laughed suddenly, and Clarke couldn't help the smile that came to her lips upon hearing the light, cheerful sound. "Oh, no, that's not it," the girl denied, "I have quite ulterior motives for being here that don't involve competition." Clarke instantly blushed under the intense, green gaze that came from Lexa's captivating eyes. "I guess if those reached their endgame, though, you would be a bit distracted."

"Are you going to continue to talk in abstract circles forever?" Clarke asked, though she was relatively sure that she knew what Lexa meant, and it drew a deeper blush onto her cheeks.

"I wasn't aware that I was doing that," Lexa admitted, though the half smile on her face suggested that she had known at least somewhat that she'd been doing it. "I can be far more direct if that would help."

One of Clarke's eyebrows popped up curiously. "Alright."

Lexa stopped walking abruptly, tugging lightly on the blonde's arm and immediately pulling her closer for a kiss. Their lips connected easily, remembering the euphoric feeling from Saturday. Clarke wished that she could somehow bottle the amazing feeling and save it for whenever she needed it, but it seemed that the only way she would be able to get it was from Lexa's lips. And she didn't really mind that.

Clarke felt Lexa fumbling with something, and suddenly, she felt a cold shell pressed into her hand. Her eyebrows furrowed, despite her eyes being closed, and then Lexa suddenly pulled away, a confident smile on her face.

Clarke looked at the shell in her hand. "When did you find this?"

"Ages ago," Lexa admitted, smiling cheekily. "Got lucky. Found two. I didn't want to be the one reason that you guys lose to us – if you do. Just don't tell anyone where you got it from." She followed the statement with a wink, and Clarke felt her heart stop for a moment, and she swallowed thickly.

"Thanks," she said. "Guess there's no reason to be down here now..."

"Sure there is," Lexa objected, a smile still on her face. "Neither of our teams can win until we get back – not that either of them would be finished yet anyway, so there's no harm in staying here. I can see plenty of reason to do so. You're here. I'm here. No one else is here."

"Are those your three reasons?" Clarke asked, her heart rate picking up despite her efforts to keep her cool.

"Yep," Lexa answered, grinning. "Plus, if I go back to camp right now, Echo is going to make me go with Caris to find some fucking rock. Caris can't go five seconds without talking about boys. I've literally never heard her talk about anything else."

"I guess I can stay down here to save you from Caris then," Clarke volunteered, a slight smile on her face.

"So," Lexa started, grabbing Clarke's free hand again and both of them continuing their walk, without looking for shells this time, "how are things on the cool side of the camp?"

"Average," Clarke answered. "Octavia's obsessed with Lincoln."

"I've been able to tell," Lexa admitted, chuckling. "I can picture it."

Clarke just nodded, not saying anything about the Raven situation involving Octavia and Lincoln. That wasn't her situation to talk about.

Out of nearly everyone that Clarke had ever met, Lexa was one of the best at keeping conversation flowing. Clarke herself was generally not the best at facilitating friendly conversation, but talking to Lexa was the easiest thing ever. It was refreshing and relaxing, and the two of them spent at least an hour just walking and talking, and Lexa never once let go of Clarke's hand.

The blonde would've been lying if she said that she hadn't been hoping the whole time for another opportunity to kiss the brunette, but they ended up going back up to camp and separating immediately. Apparently, both Pod One and Pod Six were nearly done, and were missing the exact same three things – the shell, some rock, and the deliberately hidden note in the forest.

Clarke dropped the shell off at the mess hall with the rest of Pod One's things, and then she found herself pulled by Octavia into the woods to search for the last two things.

After realizing that she wasn't being helpful at all, Clarke decided to take a break, and found herself back at Pod One in her cabin. She laid on her bed and tried to start a new sketch, but fell asleep within ten minutes of laying down.

* * *

She woke up a few hours later to the sound of dragging feet outside of the cabin. Clarke rubbed her eyes and climbed down from her bunk and went outside. She didn't see Octavia anywhere, but she saw Raven. "Hey, what happened?" Clarke asked, approaching her friend.

"We were missing one thing. Pod Six just won. Octavia's out still looking for it," Raven answered. "Where were you?"

"Needed a nap," Clarke admitted. "I wasn't helping at all, there were too many people trampling through that forest to find anything."

"Yeah, I don't blame you." Raven sighed. "Well..."

"Guys!" Octavia called suddenly, running up to them and not looking too deflated. She grabbed a few girls from her and Clarke's cabin, and Raven, and gestured for them to follow her into the red cabin. "Okay, so I found that damn rock and turned it in with the rest of the stuff for second place. But that's not what I need you guys for. Tonight, we attack pod six – red cabin to be specific."

"Echo's cabin," Raven commented.

Clarke mentally added, And Lexa's... She hoped that their "attack" wouldn't be more than spray painting their door or something.

"So, Raven and I made the ultimate spray paint. It stinks, and it sticks. Tonight, we're going to get into her cabin, and spray paint that place up. Andwe're frogging Echo."

"Frogging?" one of the girls asked.

"We're sticking a frog in her bed before we leave, while she's sleeping in it."

Clarke said, "Yeah, that's not what that word means." Octavia waved her hand at the blonde. "I don't know if I wanna help with that."

"Come on, Clarke!" Octavia exclaimed. "We need to make that bitch realize that her throne isn't as big as she thinks it is."

"I'm in," Raven said. The other two girls agreed as well, and Clarke sighed. She supposed that it wouldn't hurt, but she felt bad that it was also Lexa's cabin that they were spray painting.

They all went down to the bonfire that night to hang out, but Octavia spent the whole night watching Echo's cabin mates. She counted when each of them went up, and once they were all gone to retire after their victory, the younger brunette told the rest of her partners in crime that they would go up in an hour and then start their prank.

That's how they ended up awake past midnight, the two other girls with cans of spray paint in their hands. Raven had the frog, and they and Clarke followed Octavia silently through the camp to Pod Six. "Are we seriously doing this right now? Don't the doors lock?" Clarke demanded.

"I already have a way around it," Octavia promised. They were speaking in very quiet whispers, because if any of the camp officials found them out this late, they could potentially get in trouble.

"How long have you been planning for this exactly?" one of the girls – Harper – questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"A while," Octavia admitted, a grin on her face. "Shh, we're almost there."

They sneaked into the pod area pretty easily, but Clarke was more concerned with how Octavia planned on getting into the cabin. They went immediately to the one painted red, and Clarke swallowed thickly.

Octavia climbed the wooden steps up to the door, and everyone followed, taking care to make sure that they didn't cause the wood to creak. No one asked any questions as Octavia began to shuffle silently through the black bag she'd brought. They were all too afraid to speak, for fear that someone in the cabin would hear them.

The younger girl finally pulled a key from the bag, and fit it neatly into the little lock on the cabin door. Clarke had no idea how on Earth the brunette had the key for the cabin, but none of them questioned it. Instead, they very carefully made their way into the dark cabin.

Clarke couldn't identify any of the girls in the room in the darkness, but Octavia immediately set out to figure out which was Echo. It wouldn't do any good to put the frog in the wrong bed.

Once they all figured out which was Echo, Raven stood alongside her bed silently while Octavia grabbed a spray can of paint and carefully sprayed a message across the inside of the door. It did smell pretty bad, and the can made a noise, but none of the girls in the cabin reacted. Clarke felt slightly uneasy – she wasn't even doing anything technically wrong besides being out of bed and in someone else's cabin this late. Why Octavia wanted her to come was a mystery to her, but she supposed it was in case something went wrong.

She was proved wrong, though, when Octavia produced a few more things from her bag – pens and small sticky notes.

She began scrawling words across them and handing them to Clarke and Harper to stick on the walls.

Clarke read them all, but they all said the same thing.

 **EVERY QUEEN'S RULE ENDS SOMETIME.**

The blonde stuck the notes without feeling any sort of remorse – she knew that Octavia wasn't bitchy enough to actually be truly hurtful, even if Echo was that way to other people.

As she made her way as silently as possible to the the other side of the cabin to place one of the sticky notes, she made out one of the girls on a bottom bunk – Lexa. She suddenly felt guilty for doing anything to the cabin, because it wasn't Lexa's fault that she got stuck there. Sure, the prank was directed at Echo, but it didn't feel fair.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Clarke forced her eyes away from the brunette. She went to Octavia and gave her a look that said they needed to go now, and the younger girl nodded. She slipped her extra supplies back into her bag, as well as the spray cans, which clinked slightly and made all five of them flinch.

They all stood completely still, aside from Octavia, who slowly opened the door. Everyone was waiting for her cue, so they did nothing while she then produced a cheap video camera from the bag. She set it up in the corner of the room by one of the slightly cracked open windows, hiding it halfway behind the window shutter. She turned it on, and aside from a barely noticeable light that came on, it did nothing but record the area where Echo's bed was.

Clarke's heart was pumping surprisingly hard as Octavia swallowed visibly, and nodded a single time in Raven's direction. The girl took in a deep breath, and gently lifted the end of the blanket at the foot of Echo's bed. She set the frog down on the mattress, and then they ran.

Harper and her friend were gone immediately, heading back to the first pod, but Octavia had earlier said that she wanted to grab the camera after Echo woke up, so that it wouldn't get seen. She'd asked Raven to stay with her, and the other girl had readily agreed, so Clarke had been roped in to hanging around as well. They went to the side of the cabin, next to the window, and crouched down under it.

They waited there for a while, and Clarke began to get worried that the frog thing wasn't even going to work. The frog could've just jumped onto the ground and hidden in a corner somewhere.

It was about ten minutes later, though, that they finally heard a high pitched shriek coming from the the cabin. "What the fuck?" came the exclamation.

Suddenly, groans could also be heard as the rest of the cabin woke up.

"Someone get the light!" Echo shouted, sounding hilariously pissed off.

Octavia was trying not to crack up laughing, probably motivated enough to stay quiet by the glares that Raven and Clarke were flashing her. The lights in the cabin suddenly flipped on, and a series of gasps could be heard. "What the hell?" someone demanded.

"They put a fucking frog in my bed!" Echo exclaimed.

"Who did?" a girl questioned.

"Who do you think?" Echo snapped. Clarke heard the shuffling of feet towards the door, but a different voice suddenly said something.

"If you go out there screaming about it, one of the camp officials is going to hear you, and you'll get in trouble for being out." It was Lexa, and Clarke's heart skipped six beats in a row – at least it felt like it did.

"Fuck that," Echo snapped. "Octavia and her little bitch squad is going to get in trouble for wrecking our cabin!"

"You don't even have proof that they did it," Lexa argued.

"Look, Lexa, I don't care who your friends are. You are a part of this pod, and you can't defend those crazy losers!" Echo snapped.

"I can do whatever the fuck I want, Echo," Lexa snapped. "Now could you all please shut up and go to sleep? I'm fucking tired."

Clarke's eyes were wide, and the light suddenly went off. The cabin quickly quieted down following Lexa's request, and Octavia carefully grabbed the camera off of the window's ledge. The three of them took off back toward Pod One together, stopped to watch and laugh at the video of Echo once, and then went to bed.

Clarke found herself worrying, though, as she fell asleep, if Lexa was going to be mad at her. She could barely even sleep at all with it on her mind, and she knew that she needed to find the girl first thing in the morning.


	7. Chapter 7

Clarke and Octavia both slept in for a significant amount of time on that Tuesday morning, worn out from the excitement of the previous day and night. The blonde actually woke up first, somehow, and considered waking her younger friend up, but she decided against it. If anything, it was payback for Saturday. Not that Saturday hadn't turned out to be pretty great, since she got to spend the whole day with Lexa...

And that brought her to a different train of thought. Lexa. Considering that Clarke had practically told Lexa what Octavia was planning on doing, she didn't think that the brunette would be mad at all. At the same time, she was nervous, because if Lexa was mad at her, she would feel so awful.

So instead of waking Octavia, she changed and ventured out into the camp. It was nearly halfway through the day, at least that's what the searing heat told her. The first place she went to was the mess hall, to grab a late snack and in the hopes that she might see Lexa somewhere there.

She didn't, but she was approached by Bellamy shortly after leaving the mess hall fifteen minutes later. "Hey, do you know where Octavia is?"

"Asleep," Clarke answered. "We went to bed pretty late last night."

"Ah, right. How'd it go?" Bellamy wondered.

Clarke shrugged. "It was pretty funny, I guess. Echo screamed with utter terror, and I guess that was the goal."

"You don't seem very excited," Bellamy mused, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, tired," Clarke used as her excuse. "Where are you headed?"

"Fields," Bellamy answered, "but not for another half hour or so. Some people are heading over there for a friendly soccer game. Care to join?"

"I think I'll pass, thanks," Clarke replied, laughing lightly. "Sports aren't really my thing."

"Well, if you see Octavia get up, mind letting her know?"

"Sure," Clarke replied. Suddenly, her blue eyes caught on Anya, coming out of the mess hall. "I'll see you later."

"See you," Bellamy replied, before he headed off toward the fields.

Clarke went over to Anya. "Hey, have you seen Lexa?"

The other blonde stopped walking and turned her head to look at Clarke. One of her eyebrows quirked up. "I saw her this morning, early," she answered. "I heard that you slipped a frog under Echo's covers."

"Well, I didn't... but, yeah," Clarke replied. "Do a lot of people know?"

Anya smirked. "Oh yeah, a lot of people know. I made it my job to make sure of that. I was in Echo's pod last year. Thing is, I've known that girl since the both of us went to a summer camp for kids that's made by the same organization that does Camp Unite. And she used to be so nice. No idea what happened."

Clarke just hummed, not sure what to say in response. Anya let out a light laugh.

"Yeah, Lexa. Not sure where she is right now. I'd say wherever Echo is not," Anya suggested. "See you, blondie."

"Yeah, see you," Clarke replied, and then Anya continued off to wherever she was going.

Clarke tried to look for Lexa, but ended up finding Raven, sitting on a little wooden bench in the part of camp where most people didn't go as much, reading some thick book about something that Clarke was sure she wouldn't understand. "Hey," she called in greeting to the brunette, who looked up, slightly surprised.

"Octavia not with you?"

"She was still asleep when I got up," Clarke answered, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "Can I sit?"

"Yeah," Raven replied. "Reading about Zero-G stuff. It's pretty cool."

"Nice," Clarke said, smiling. "So apparently everyone knows about what we did last night."

"I think that was the point," Raven said, laughing and closing her book. "I thought O would up bright and early to start her gloating. But she doesn't sleep much, so it's good that she's getting some shut eye, I guess."

Clarke nodded, wondering if she should ask Raven about Octavia or not. She figured not, but before she could move onto a different topic, Raven was talking again.

"She's so frustrating," the girl muttered. "I can't control how I feel around her. And every time I see her around Lincoln I just feel... betrayed. Which is stupid, because how should that affect me at all?"

"I mean... that's what happens when you like someone. You can't help it." Clarke watched Raven carefully, as the girl's dark eyes stared at the book sitting in her lap.

"What do you think she'd do or think if she knew?" Raven asked, quiet.

Clarke let out a sigh. "I don't know. She's pretty unpredictable."

"I know," Raven murmured, slouching a bit. "Anyway. Were you looking for me for something?"

"Actually, no. Just happened to find you," Clarke admitted. "I was... uh, looking for Lexa."

"Ooh, how's that going?" Raven asked. Clarke pursed her lips, trying not to let the smile that she felt creeping up on her become visible. Raven could read through her easily, though, and poked her in the side. "Come on, have you gotten anymore kisses?"

"Shut up," Clarke said, her cheeks flushing. She wasn't really good with the whole teasing thing, clearly. "But yes, actually, I did get another one yesterday. I just... I want to make sure that she's not mad that we went in and wrecked her cabin last night."

Raven's eyes filled with understanding. "Oh, that's why you didn't want to help with it. Because you're whipped as fuck already and didn't want to help ruin your girlfriend's sleep."

"First of all, she's not my girlfriend," Clarke said, rolling her eyes. "And second of all..." Her voice trailed off as she realized that she wasn't sure what she'd been planning on saying.

"And second of all, you're whipped as fuck. Exactly what I just said," Raven replied, raising a pointed eyebrow. "Come on, you can't deny it Clarke. Have you been looking for her long?"

"Just for about twenty minutes or so," Clarke answered. "I've just been walking around, not really like... looking I guess. I haven't seen her though. What if she's mad at me?"

"She won't be mad at you, she hates Echo just as much as we do," Raven promised. "And sorry to be no help, but I haven't seen her."

"It's all good," Clarke replied. "I know she won't be mad at me, but yeah, I guess I'm just worried anyway."

"Or maybe you're just looking for an excuse to find her," Raven offered, cracking a grin. "Walk me back to my cabin? I'm feeling like a lazy day. Apparently something's going down tomorrow."

"Like what? Another competition?" Clarke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raven shrugged. "I don't know. They mentioned something about it briefly when most people were in the mess hall for breakfast." She stood up from the bench, and the blonde mimicked her movements. "You should tell Octavia at some point so she doesn't sleep all day tomorrow too." They started back toward their pod.

"Are you avoiding her?" Clarke asked.

Raven narrowed her eyes. "No..."

"Come on, Raven. You were camping out in the emptiest part of camp, and now you're spending all day in your cabin? Why are you avoiding her? I mean, is there a more specific reason than the obvious?" Clarke asked.

The other girl just shook her head. "I don't know. Crushes just suck, you know?" Clarke nodded, frowning. It absolutely sucked that one of her new good friends was stuck in this position with one of Clarke's other new good friends. "Anyway. If she asks where I am, say you don't know. I just need a day without her craziness and just... you know."

"Yeah, sure," Clarke agreed, nodding. They entered the big area of camp in front of the mess hall that had paths breaking off into different directions. They took a left and headed toward Pod One. "If you want to get over her, though, just avoiding won't necessarily help. You know that, right?"

"I know," Raven replied. "I'm just trying not to think about her today. I've got my Zero-G book, and I'm set for the day."

"Is half of your bag that you brought for this just filled with books?" Clarke asked jokingly, though the narrowed eyes looking at her told the blonde that she wasn't wrong. Clarke just grinned. "I'll see you later."

Raven cracked a half smile and nodded, and then she headed up toward her cabin.

Clarke continued down toward the lake, seeing no other real option. As she walked, she realized that since a lot of people were at the fields, camp felt rather empty. After walking along the edge of the lake, surrounded by very few people, she finally decided to make her way up to the fields. If anything, maybe Lexa was up there.

As she approached the fields, she immediately saw that Octavia had actually already gotten up sometime in the past hour or so. She was on the field with a plethora of other people, playing some ball game.

Clarke's eyes scanned all of the people as she made her way closer, seeing Bellamy, Lincoln, the two guys Raven had met, Jasper and Monty, and that guy Murphy. She saw a few of Echo's cabin members, but Echo herself was not participating in the friendly competition.

Blue eyes finally caught on the person they were actually searching for. Lexa. She was standing on the sidelines of one of the games, but Clarke couldn't really see her expression – just the outline of the side of her face, as well as her long dark hair tied back neatly.

Clarke suddenly felt nervous about approaching her while so many people were around, but she really didn't see the harm in it. Lexa didn't seem to be talking to anyone. Plus, everyone was being so loud that any talking would hardly be heard by anyone who wasn't listening attentively.

Swallowing her nerves, she headed toward the game going on.

Lexa didn't seem to see her heading over, and Clarke felt an idea slip into her head, and a half smile appeared on her face as she approached the girl from behind. Her hands immediately poked into Lexa's sides, causing the girl to let out a squeak and turn around, and Clarke couldn't help the grin that split across her face. "See what it's like?" she asked, quirking up an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lexa said back, waving her hand and smiling. "What's up? Where've you been all day?"

"Sleeping," Clarke admitted. "Went to bed late."

"Right," Lexa remembered, smirking, "after you stuck a frog in Echo's bed."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I didn't do that, but yeah. Speaking of... you're not like... mad about that are you?" Lexa's eyes narrowed slightly.

"No," she answered, tilting her head. "You pretty much told me that you guys were going to do that anyway. Plus, after I got over being woken up by Echo's squealing, I almost started laughing trying to fall back asleep."

"We got it on video," Clarke told the brunette. "It's pretty hard to see her reaction, but you can definitely hear it."

"How long were you guys in there being all stealth mode?"

Clarke shrugged. "I don't know. A few minutes." She looked out at the field where the game was going on. "What are they playing?"

"Who knows?" Lexa answered. "I was considering playing, but I don't even think whatever it is is a real game. Why? Did you wanna play?"

"Uh, no," Clarke answered.

"So why did you hike all the way over here?" Lexa asked, her full attention back on the blonde rather than the game. Clarke's cheeks immediately warmed up, because Lexa had to know that she'd walked up there to find her. "Aw, you walked all the way up here for me?"

"Shut up," Clarke muttered, crossing her arms over her chest as her face flushed red and Lexa started laughing.

"You're adorable," the brunette insisted, a smile on her face, once her laughs died down a bit. "Come on." She grabbed Clarke's hand, tugging her away from the people around them.

"Where are we going?" Clarke asked, her blush dying down but he heart rate picking up after feeling the brunette's soft hand in her own.

Lexa quirked up an eyebrow. "Does it matter? Would you rather sit around and watch a bunch of people tackling each other in a fake ball game?" Clarke let out a light laugh, shaking her head. "So then come on!"

* * *

Raven was curled up on her bed still hours later, much further into her Zero Gravity Dynamics book. She'd done a relatively successful job of blocking out any thoughts about Octavia, until her eyes were tired from reading and had to set it down and release her mind to the real world. She knew that it was nearing dinner time, and that she should probably get her ass up and go eat, but she didn't want to run into Octavia. The last thing she wanted was for the girl to ask her where she'd been all day, and then try and playfully guilt her into hanging out at the lake or something until late.

Not that there would be anything wrong with that specifically, except for the fact that nearly every time that Raven hung out with Octavia, other people were around. Specifically, Lincoln. Raven didn't really blame her crush for liking Lincoln – he wasn't bad looking by any means, nor was he a jackass. All the Raven really had against him was that Octavia liked him, and she liked Octavia.

She'd only really ever felt a general attraction to girls – the reason that she knew that she wasn't necessarily completely straight. Never, though, before Octavia, had Raven ever had emotional feelings toward a girl, or considered dating one.

Now, though, it was so hard to get that girl out of her head.

Suddenly, her cabin door opened, and one of Raven's cabin mates – Luna – walked in. "Oh, hey Raven. You been in here all day?"

"Yeah mostly," she answered. "Didn't feel like doing anything."

"Fair enough," Luna reasoned, smiling. "Are you coming to dinner? Apparently, Echo is going to make her first appearance of the day there. Everyone's pretty giddy about it."

"They should be," Raven said, returning a smile as best as she could, "but I'm good. I don't need to be there when Echo rages anyway. You go. I'll be fine."

"Alright," Luna agreed, grabbing whatever she'd come in for from her bunk and then heading out again.

* * *

"You've seriously never been to New York?" Clarke demanded, gaping at the brunette sitting across from her. They were sitting on a couple of rocks near the edge of the lake, but along the treeline, near where they'd talked while looking for shells. They'd been there for hours, unable to stop their flow of conversation. Not that either one of them wanted to stop it.

"I haven't, seriously," Lexa answered, laughing. "It can't be that awesome."

"Whatever, you haven't been there," Clarke said, shaking her head. "Ridiculous."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lexa said back, rolling her eyes playfully. "Is that where you wanna live one day? New York?"

Clarke hummed. "I don't know. I haven't really thought that far ahead yet. My mom wants me to go to Stanford or Berkeley or something, but I don't know about the west coast. Kinda far away."

"It's nice over there. But yeah, far away," Lexa agreed. "I wouldn't mind going to school locally, or in the state at least. I don't really know what I wanna do after high school though. Not sure about swimming professionally."

"I feel like most people who actually think they know will end up changing their mind," Clarke reasoned. "I don't know. I love art too much to throw it away. College just seems unnecessary sometimes."

"So put off college," Lexa said. "It's your life."

Clarke nodded. "Yeah. My mom and I just... recently we've not really been getting along and I don't want to mess up my relationship with her anymore."

Lexa raised an eyebrow. "If she can't accept what you want to do with your life, that's your problem. If she loves you, she'll deal with it. Don't throw away your dreams for her." Clarke let out a light laugh.

"Thanks. It's just stressful."

"So let's do something else," Lexa offered, hopping up off of the rock she'd been sitting on. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, we've been here a while, huh?" Clarke realized, getting up as well.

"Something like that," the brunette confirmed, smiling. "Time to rejoin society, I suppose."

They walked through the dimly lit woods. The sun was starting to go down, that much was clear. Clarke's hand, dangling uselessly at her side, itched to grab onto Lexa's. Neither of them said anything either, but the silence was calm and nice, and it didn't bother Clarke in the slightest. She did wish that she was courageous enough to grab Lexa's hand, though.

When they made it back to camp, the saw people streaming down from the fields toward the mess hall, laughing and talking. They all looked sweaty and gross, and Clarke knew that the mess hall was not going to smell nice.

"Clarke!" Octavia called suddenly, drawing the blonde's attention immediately to the other girl approaching her. "Where's Raven?"

Clarke blinked. "I don't know."

"Come on, really? Have you seen her at all today?" Octavia demanded. "What if something's wrong? I thought she'd come up to the fields at some point. Someone from her cabin told me that she got up this morning. What if something happened to her?"

"I haven't seen her, but I'm sure she's fine," Clarke insisted. "Also, you smell like shit, Octavia."

"Whatever," the brunette muttered, rolling her eyes. "Please just answer one question for me."

"Okay," Clarke said, sighing.

"Is Raven avoiding me?" Octavia asked, her expression completely serious.

Clarke didn't let herself miss a beat. "O, I don't know." The girl let out a huff and turned around, walking toward the mess hall again.

Lexa was looking at Clarke with interest. "You totally just lied to her."

"I promised Raven," Clarke stated, crossing her arms over her chest uncomfortably. "Come on, I just wanna eat something."

They managed to get into the mess hall once the mass of people from the fields had gotten in, and then grabbed their servings of the food. They sat near Clarke's friends, and the blonde duly noted that Raven hadn't come to dinner, but a little bit separate so that they were somewhat alone.

"I thought this summer camp was going to be one of those nice, stress relief ones," Lexa commented as they ate, "but I feel like there's more drama here than during the school year."

"Seriously," Clarke agreed, shaking her head. "It's ridiculous. But I mean... I guess it's not too bad. You can't really squeeze this many teenagers together and expect there to not be drama."

"Fair enough." They were silent for a moment, and then Lexa let out a breath. "Hey, by the way, if I ever overstep by asking questions or talking about something, let me know, okay? I don't want to make you talk about things that you don't want to."

"If you're talking about the mom thing, you're fine," Clarke said, quirking up and eyebrow.

Lexa was nodding, but her forehead was lightly creased. "Yeah, but still. Let me know if I start to do it again."

Clarke was about to insist that Lexa wasn't doing anything wrong by bringing those topics up, but before she could, a large portion of the mess hall suddenly became quiet as the doors to the building opened, and Echo stalked in. People watched her with wary expressions, but most of them stopped caring once she grabbed her food and began to head to the table where most of her pod was sitting.

She veered suddenly, though, and was heading to the table that Lexa, Clarke, Octavia, Bellamy, Lincoln, and quite a few others were sitting at. She took a seat there like she owned the place, and no one at the table said anything. "Listen up you little bitches," Echo immediately started, looking at all of them one by one – even Lexa. "You can do all you want to try and humiliate me. I don't give a fuck. It doesn't change who's going to win this thing."

"How about once your pod realizes that you're an asshole?" Octavia snapped. "Or when everyone actually sees the lovely little instant replay of you screaming like a little kid about a frog?"

"Fuck you, Octavia," Echo snapped.

"Come on, Echo, we just want a fun summer," Bellamy interrupted. "You're too competitive, and you ruin the fun of camp. If you could just lighten up, you could actually have a good time, too."

"I'm too competitive?" Echo demanded. "Have you met your little sister and her lackeys?"

"You're calling us her lackeys?" Clarke asked, unable to hold in her question. "There's actually this thing called friendship, I don't know if you've really tried it recently, but it's pretty nice."

"Shut it, blondie!"

"Chill out, Echo," Lexa snapped. "You're not helping anything."

"Oh, and you definitely are," Echo retaliated. "Wait, I forgot, you don't care about anything that goes on here. You're too preoccupied with being whipped as fuck by blon-"

"Fuck off," Lexa growled, cutting off the other girl.

"Definitely helping things." Echo glared at the brunette, and then at Clarke, and then at Octavia and Bellamy, before standing back up and strutting back to her group's table. Everyone sitting there had been watching the scene happen at the other table, but most of the people in the mess hall didn't really seem to care.

"Well," Clarke said, her eyes widened slightly from the confrontation, "that was fun."

Lexa put her fork down. "I'm not really hungry anymore." She looked visibly closed off, and Clarke frowned.

"Okay, let's go somewhere then."

Lexa's eyebrow quirked up, though her eyes were still dulled. "Where?"

"Does it matter?" Clarke asked, the end of her lips turning up into a small smirk, and a small smile finally appeared on the brunette's face.

"No, it doesn't matter."


	8. Chapter 8

The first thing that Clarke and Lexa did after leaving the mess hall was bring some food to Raven – Clarke knew why the girl didn't want to leave her cabin, but she didn't want her friend to starve. After that, though, Clarke just wanted to be with Lexa. Her crush on the swimmer was getting exponentially bigger, and slowly turning into more than just a silly little crush. Being around Lexa was intoxicating.

They were walking through camp, silently, until Lexa suddenly laughed and insisted, "You have no idea where we're going, Clarke."

"Yeah, you're right," the blonde replied, giving Lexa a shy smile. "Any ideas?"

"I'm just as clueless here as you are," Lexa reminded her, shaking her head. "The only place I know is the dock."

"So let's go," Clarke said, gathering up her courage and grabbing Lexa's hand. A blush appeared on the taller girl's cheeks, making Clarke smile proudly. "But I'm not changing to swim, so we're walking."

"Fine by me," Lexa agreed. They veered off their current path and toward the woods, silent again. Clarke could tell that something was bothering Lexa, but she didn't know if she should ask about it. Surely, it was something about what Echo had said to her. That's what made Lexa lose her appetite anyway. Finally, the brunette let out a light breath and said, "I really wish I could switch out of Echo's cabin. I don't feel comfortable there at all."

"I'm sure you could talk to someone about it," Clarke said.

Lexa shook her head. "I can't, because Echo would make such a big deal out of it. Not that I care, it's just easier to not make a bigger deal out of everything."

"She's a bitch."

"I'm sure she's a good person somewhere deep down," Lexa muttered, shaking her head. "Probably. Maybe. Who knows? I just wish she could win competitions and shit without getting rudely involved with everyone's fucking business."

Clarke swallowed thickly as they continued through the woods along the side of the lake. "Is this about what Echo was saying to you?"

"Yeah," Lexa answered. "She needs to keep to her own business." Clarke squeezed the girl's hand, drawing her gaze, and gave her a sympathetic look.

"Don't think about it," Clarke suggested. "Think about something else."

"Yeah? Any suggestions of what I should be thinking about?" Lexa requested, the corner of her lips pointing up as one of her eyebrows did the same.

Clarke stopped suddenly, her hand still clasped with the brunette's. They were both silent, and the quiet noise of crickets waking up was the only sound that could be heard. She took a step closer to Lexa, so they were just inches apart, and the brunette made no attempt to back away. Green eyes searched through blue ones for a moment, and then Clarke closed hers and pressed her lips against Lexa's.

This kiss was different than their previous ones, because Clarke was trying to reassure Lexa. The brunette was clearly upset about Echo's comment that she was "whipped as fuck" by Clarke, and the blonde was pretty sure that wasn't true anyway. She just wanted Lexa to know that she wasn't paying attention to Echo at all.

It was slow and soft, and Lexa wasted no time before kissing her back just as gently. Clarke felt as though she was being absorbed completely into the brunette's embrace, because the taller girl had release Clarke's hands, and was now pulling them closer together by the blonde's hips. Needing to do something with her own hands, Clarke brought one of them up to Lexa's face, pushing some of her long dark hair out of it, and her other hand snaked around Lexa's waist.

What started as soft and sweet suddenly escalated into desperate need. Their tongues were battling it out, and Clarke could feel her lips swelling already, but she didn't mind at all. Lexa was continually pulling them impossibly closer together, and Clarke didn't blame her at all.

The brunette was taking control after a moment, gently pushing Clarke backwards until she was pressed carefully against the only thing in the surrounding area – a tree. The blonde hardly had time to even realize that it was a tree, though, because Lexa's mouth and tongue were suddenly not on her own anymore. Instead, they found their way to Clarke's exposed neck. The feeling left the shorter girl biting her bottom lip, which was plumper than normal, and made her suddenly aware of a burning in between her legs. She found herself rubbing her thighs together, trying to create some friction, without meaning too.

"Lexa..." It came out halfway between a murmur and a moan, and Clarke wasn't even sure what its purpose was. She just wanted the brunette as close to her as possible, and she wasn't sure what that was at the moment.

A rustling noise could all of the sudden be heard above them, and something fell from the leaves of the tree and landed on Clarke.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, tensing immediately, and Lexa pulled away, a look of confusion on her face as Clarke swatted at her shoulder. She finally flung the bug that had landed on her off onto the ground, and she was gasping for air both because of her panic and because of the moment with Lexa, which was now, unfortunately, in the past.

Clarke blinked, suddenly realizing that Lexa was cracking up with laughter.

"Don't laugh!" Clarke whined. "It fell on me! I can't help that it freaked me out!"

Lexa tried to take a deep breath, but ended up laughing for another minute while Clarke pouted as best as she could and crossed her arms. When the brunette finally calmed herself, she was still grinning. "I'm sorry, you have to admit that that was pretty hilarious."

"It was a giant ass bug! That's not funny!" Clarke exclaimed.

"I thought it was pretty funny," Lexa reasoned, still smiling as she suddenly came forward and pressed a soft, apologetic kiss against Clarke's swollen lips. It lasted only a second. "Come on, scaredy-cat."

* * *

"Where have you been all night?" Octavia asked, raising an eyebrow as Clarke came into the cabin at nearly eleven.

"By the lake," Clarke answered. It was a slight stretch, because she hadn't been at the edge of the lake were people typically hung out – she'd been at the dock with Lexa. Talking, looking at the sky. It was nice. Unfortunately, because the camp people would probably notice them coming in at the edge of the camp past eleven, they'd had to end their time hanging out at that point.

"Bullshit," Octavia called, her voice slightly hushed, because everyone was in their beds by now. Not sleeping necessarily, but in bed. "I was at the lake up until like twenty minutes ago. Didn't see you."

Clarke just slipped into the bathroom and took a quick shower, which, because of the cheap plumbing, was freezing. Once she was cleaned up and changed, she went back into the main cabin area and climbed up onto her bunk.

Octavia was immediately turned around in her own bunk to face Clarke. "So? Where were you?"

"Around," Clarke answered, knowing that her face was red but that Octavia wouldn't be able to notice in the dark.

"Were you with Raven?" Octavia questioned. "I still haven't seen her all day."

Clarke was shaking her head. "No, I wasn't."

"C'mon Clarke," Octavia pleaded. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, O. I wasn't with Raven."

Octavia was quiet for a few minutes, and Clarke was almost ready to just lay down and go to sleep, but the brunette was talking again. "Are you and Raven hooking up?"

If Clarke had been drinking or eating, she would've choked and died in an instant. "No! What the fuck, Octavia?"

"You're both being weird," Octavia muttered. "Why are you guys avoiding me then?"

"I'm not avoiding you, Octavia," Clarke hissed. "I was with Lexa. Raven was probably in her cabin."

"She probably was, or she was?" Octavia demanded, crossing her arms.

The blonde narrowed her eyes. "Octavia, if you think Raven is being weird, ask her about it. Stop asking me about it, okay? Please?"

"Whatever. Why didn't you just tell me that you were with Lexa?" the younger girl wondered.

"No reason, just didn't seem necessary."

"Mmhmm."

"What? If you want to know something, just ask it."

Octavia cleared her throat. "Echo made that comment about Lexa being whipped by you."

"She didn't say that."

"She almost did, but Lexa got all defensive and cut her off."

"And?"

"Is it true?"

"What?" Clarke asked, though she knew what the brunette was asking.

"Do you have Lexa wrapped around your finger?" Octavia asked, and Clarke could see her smirk through the darkness.

"I wouldn't put it that way," Clarke muttered, rolling her eyes.

Octavia sighed. "You seem mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you, Octavia, I'm just tired. Can we talk more tomorrow?" Clarke whined, and the brunette nodded. Finally, the blonde curled up under her blanket and fell asleep almost instantly, Lexa filling her thoughts as she did so.

* * *

"Have you talked to Octavia yet?"

Raven sighed. "I will at lunch."

"I'm not lying for you anymore," Clarke said. "Whether she likes you the way you like her or not, she cares about you, and she is freaking out about you not talking to her. She thought that you and I were having sex."

"What the fuck?" Raven exclaimed, her eyes widening as she looked up at Clarke. They were currently sitting in the little clearing that they'd found during their first week at camp, both on the large rock that Lexa had caused Clarke to fall off of. "That's weird."

"I know," Clarke agreed, "which is why you need to talk to her."

"I told you. I will at lunch." Clarke just nodded, accepting that answer. "So. What were you and Lexa doing last night after you brought me food?"

"We... went into the woods and hung out by the lake a little bit away from camp," Clarke answered, not describing the dock to her friend, because it felt too personal. Even though it was Anya who had technically discovered it.

"Ooh, were you out late?"

"I got back to my cabin by eleven," Clarke answered, and Raven was grinning.

"So...?" Clarke shrugged, but the blush she was sure was covering her face gave her away easily. "Did you guys do anything?"

"No," Clarke answered, "and seriously, you're making me so uncomfortable by asking me that."

"Oh chill out," Raven insisted, waving her hand at the blonde. "You really like her though, right?"

Clarke nodded, her blush fading a little bit as seriousness suddenly enveloped her. "I do really like her. At first it was just like... a little crush. Like, I feel like you shouldn't come to a summer camp and suddenly start falling for someone. But like... she's seriously so amazing. Plus, I could literally kiss her for years if I didn't need to breathe."

"Wow, sappy much?" Raven asked, though she was still grinning. "Are you saying that you're actually falling for her, though?"

"I think so," the blonde answered, her stomach twisting inside her. "I mean, I know what it feels like to fall for someone. I've fallen in love with two people throughout high school. This feels pretty similar. But like... faster?"

"Maybe because you're seeing her like... all the time?" Raven suggested, quirking up an eyebrow.

"Maybe. All I know is that I really like her. It's kind of scary."

Raven smiled softly. "It'll be okay. You're a pretty decent person, Clarke. I'm sure everything will work out."

"A pretty decent person?" Clarke repeated, laughing lightly. "Gee, thanks, Raven."

* * *

"Hey, can we talk for a minute?" Raven asked, surprising the girl in front of her, who turned around instantly.

"Of course! Where the fuck have you been?" Octavia demanded, frowning.

"Just in my cabin. Can we talk like... not here?"

Octavia nodded, getting up from her seat in the mess hall and following Raven outside. They headed to the edge of pod one, where Raven didn't see anyone. Most people were at lunch, so it made sense that no one was there. "What's up, Raven?" the younger girl's voice sounded very concerned all of the sudden, making it clear to Raven that she knew it was a serious topic.

"Um, I've been avoiding you."

"I thought so," Octavia muttered, still frowning.

Raven cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I've just been... going through something. I kind of needed to just relax and be alone."

"Okay, I understand that," Octavia said, sounding like she expected more. Raven really wanted to say more, too, but she was terrified of what her friend's response might be. "Are you okay now?"

Raven swallowed thickly, finding herself nodding despite herself. "Yeah. How was your day yesterday? Sorry I missed it."

"It was kinda lame, because I was worrying about where you were all day," Octavia admitted. "I'm glad you're okay. Do you wanna eat something now? I'm kind of hungry."

Raven nodded.

"Have you seen Clarke this morning?"

"She went to go eat lunch with Lexa," Raven answered, nodding again. She and Octavia were heading back to the mess hall now.

"They're pretty good friends now, huh?"

Raven suddenly laughed. "You are literally so oblivious."

Octavia furrowed her eyebrows, looking utterly confused. "What?" Raven just laughed again, because she was crushing on an adorable idiot, and she was too scared to say anything about it, but she would figure it out. Right now, she just needed to accept her situation and continue on from there.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey, where were you at dinner last night?" Octavia asked her brother, who was conveniently standing right next to her as they both grabbed their breakfast from the side of the mess hall. "I wanted to ask you about the next competition."

"Octavia, I don't want to be a part of your competition thing. This is my last year here, and I'm trying to enjoy it," Bellamy stated in response.

Octavia blinked, surprised. She knew that he brother wasn't as competitive as she was, but he had never flat out opposed her ideas like that. "Alright, fine. I just am worried that Echo is planning something. I didn't see her like... at all yesterday. What if she's planning payback?"

"Sounds like that's you're problem, O," Bellamy replied, giving her a pointed look, "because you organized for someone to put a frog under her blankets while she was sleeping."

"Okay, but you can't really blame me, can you?" Octavia demanded. "You know how awful she is."

"Whatever I'll see you later." Her older brother was off to sit with his buddies, and the brunette shook her head and went toward where Raven and Clarke were sitting.

"Morning," Raven greeted as the younger girl sat down. The mechanic immediately noticed that something was clouding Octavia's thoughts. "What's up?"

"Bell is being weird," she replied, furrowing her eyebrows. "I feel like there's something that he isn't telling me. But I also feel like he has a point."

"About what?" Clarke asked, raising her eyebrows before taking another bite of her breakfast.

"This whole competition thing. Am I ridiculous for taking it so seriously?"

Raven shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, it's a little intense, but this is a competition oriented camp." The two brunettes looked to Clarke, who blinked and swallowed the food in her mouth.

"Don't ask me. I don't want a part in this competition thing," she muttered.

Raven smirked and rolled her eyes, and Octavia frowned. "Why is it that I feel like everyone is keeping things from me?"

"What are you talking about?" Raven asked, and Clarke immediately picked up on the tension rising around the other seventeen year old. She tried not to roll her eyes, because Raven couldn't be more obvious about hiding something from Octavia.

The younger girl groaned. "I'm talking about everything! There's always something that I don't know about, so what is it?"

Raven let out a puff of air, and looked to Clarke, who raised her eyebrows. It wasn't the blonde's place to say anything about Raven's crush on Octavia, so if the mechanic wanted to share that piece of information with Octavia, it was totally her call. The latter girl, though, was raised an expectant eyebrow and looking pointedly at Raven, who finally let out as sigh.

"Clarke is hooking up with Lexa."

Clarke nearly choked on her food, coughing loudly and abruptly before forcing herself to swallow. "Shut up, no I'm not!" she hissed, not sure where Lexa was in the mess hall, if she was there. "And who the fuck are you to tell anyone about anything I'm doing?"

"That's what I was laughing about before Octavia asked what I was hiding!" Raven exclaimed, which on one hand was a valid reason, but on the other, was totally not. "Because you don't wanna do the whole competition thing between our pod and Pod Six, because Lexa's in it."

"Would you shut up?" Clarke growled.

Octavia had begun laughing at their bickering, but by the time Raven finally just shook her head and went back to eating, she'd stopped the laughing. "Okay, but are you hooking up? Oh my gosh, that totally means that Echo's comment about Lexa being whipped by you was legit!"

"We're not 'hooking up'," Clarke snapped back, quite irked now. "Now can we drop this please?"

The younger girl looked to Raven. "So if they're not hooking up, what are they doing?"

"Sneaking off into the woods together during dinner and being all mushy around each other and K-I-S-S -"

"Raven!" Clarke exclaimed, absolutely exasperated now. "Seriously?"

"Fine, I'll stop," Raven gave in, though a smirk seemed to be permanently stuck on her face. Clarke knew that her face was flushed red, and she honestly felt like just leaving the room, but she knew that her friends were just that – her friends. Friends teased each other, and she shouldn't really be upset by it. Though, it was slightly disheartening that Clarke was Raven's confidant, but the latter wouldn't keep Clarke's personal stuff private from Octavia.

But the blonde also knew that Raven was trying to avoid telling Octavia about her crush on the brunette, and that was the only reason she was letting it slide. Otherwise, she might've been really seriously pissed.

* * *

Clarke managed to let it go pretty much completely by the time that Octavia was dragging both her and Raven down to the lake. She claimed that she was going to take the day off from being competitive, and see if maybe she was crazy for taking the summer camp so seriously. Honestly, Clarke wanted to tell her that the over-competitiveness was a bit much, and that she should tone it down, but she couldn't bring herself to say it to her friend. Instead, she decided that staying out of it as much as possible, unlike her previous direct involvement, would be better.

When they got down to the lake, they quickly stripped down to their bikinis and waded into the refreshing water. It was actually nice to have Octavia to hang out while she wasn't obsessing over something or another regarding camp. They all just talked and laughed, splashing each other and swimming around and just enjoying the time.

It was different, and it was nice.

When they got out of the water quite a while later, they stood along the edge of it at a slightly raised portion of the beach, to dry out in the sun and look at the lake.

"Hey," Octavia said softly, once they were standing there. "I wanna apologize to you guys. I tried to become like... good friends with both of you at the beginning of the summer a few weeks back. I feel like I've become a shitty one because of me being a crazy competitive bitch."

"Bitch might be a little too far," Clarke said, smiling at the brunette. "Thanks for apologizing, though. Honestly, you were forgiven anyway."

Raven nodded in agreement. "Yeah, O. You wouldn't be you if you weren't this crazy." A grin grew on the younger girl's face.

"You know, I've never made friends so quickly before at this place," she admitted. "You guys are pretty great."

"Right back at you," Clarke replied, laughing lightly.

Raven replied only with a quiet, "Yeah." Clarke caught the friend line, but she was pretty sure that Octavia was too oblivious of Raven's crush on her to deliberately put her in the friend zone.

Suddenly, two hands poked into Clarke's side, and the blonde let out a loud squeal. "Hey!" she screeched, already knowing who it was before she turned around. She heard Lexa's loud laughter before she turned around too. Octavia and Raven were also both laughing, because apparently, Clarke getting scared half to death was just hilarious to everyone.

"It never gets old," Lexa said, once her laughs were subsiding.

"It does, actually," Clarke muttered, crossing her arms, but unable to keep a small smile from her face. Maybe she didn't actually mind it much, because it was Lexa, who was practically a fucking angel.

"Whatcha doing?" Lexa questioned, looking at all three of the girls she was speaking to but smiling sweetly at the blonde.

"Nothing," Clarke answered, before either of her friends could say something that would keep her from abandoning them for Lexa. "Why?"

"You wanna do something?"

Raven coughed, pretending like she was trying to cover her words as she also said, "Chill with the eye-fucking."

Clarke immediately turned to face the brunette, her eyes narrowed. "Could you not?"

Raven started laughing, and the blonde abruptly pushed her off of the ledge and into the water, causing her giggles to turn into a screech. When the girl came out from under the murky lake water, she was glaring at the blonde. "Seriously?"

"You've had that coming all day," Clarke called back, her face probably a stark red still from the comment.

Octavia chuckled. "We'll see you later, Clarke." She smiled quickly at Lexa, and then hopped into the water toward Raven, who squealed and dived out of the way.

Clarke looked back to the brunette, who looked thoroughly amused with the entire situation. "Please excuse my friends," Clarke said, still able to feel the warmth in her face, "they're idiots."

"Doesn't bother me." Lexa grinned.

"You were saying something about doing something?"

* * *

"Uh, I don't think this is a good idea," Clarke muttered, looking at the swords laid out in front of her. "I'll probably cut my face off."

"Doubt it," Lexa replied. "Plus, I kinda like your face, so I'll make sure it doesn't come off. Deal?"

Clarke looked at the fencer with a raised eyebrow and a blush. "Alright. But I'm pretty sure I have no fencing ability."

"You don't need to learn all of the rules," Lexa reasoned, "but it's fun to do. I promise."

"I already agreed, you don't need to convince me anymore," Clarke replied, laughing lightly as the brunette's face blushed a little. "So. I literally have no idea how to do this."

"How about you start by picking up one of the swords?" Lexa suggested, a half smile across her face.

Clarke rolled her eyes, grabbing one of them at random and holding it out in front of her like it was going to kill her just by mere contact at the hilt. Lexa was clearly trying not to laugh, but the blonde really couldn't blame her.

"Okay, but... you need to hold it like..." She paused, gave up on trying to explain it, and just grabbed Clarke's hand, adjusting the sword in her grip. Clarke wasn't sure if it was bad that all she could focus on was Lexa's hand touching hers, and how she kind of wished they were doing something else instead of fencing.

They ended up spending the better part of an hour with the activity, though, because Lexa was determined to get Clarke to at least learn something. However, Clarke caught on quickly that Lexa was a hands-on teacher, and if she messed up, the brunette didn't hesitate to guide Clarke by touch. And yeah, maybe Clarke did learn a thing or two about fencing, but she didn't implement most of them. She was too focused on Lexa and not at all on the task at hand.

"Okay, maybe you are impossible," Lexa teased, once she had officially given up. "We can stop now. I know you'd probably rather be doing anything else."

"Not true," Clarke argued. "It wasn't too boring."

"So what was so bad about it?" Lexa asked. They'd both put their swords and things down by now, and the blonde took a step closer to the taller girl.

"Well," she said, "you kept trying to show me how to do shit. And you were touching me here..." Clarke touched Lexa's hand and wrist, "and here..." She touched her shoulders, "and here." She touched Lexa's hips. She paused her talking deliberately for a moment to hear Lexa's breath hitch slightly at their closeness, and the feeling of Clarke's hands on her. "It was a bit distracting."

"I guess I can see how that would be distracting," Lexa reasoned, her green eyes glued to blue ones. "I didn't do that intentionally."

Clarke smirked. "Sure you didn't."

"You calling me a liar?" Lexa asked, her hands suddenly touching the blonde's hips, and her arms snaking around her waist. Clarke didn't answer, though, because she couldn't handle not placing her lips on the brunette's. They were immediately absorbed into one another, Lexa dominating the kiss with her tongue purposefully. Clarke hummed contently against Lexa's mouth. It just felt right to be so close to her, to kiss her and hug her body close.

They broke out of the kiss after a few, long moments, but they didn't get much further from each other. "See," Lexa murmured, "I told you your face would be okay."

Clarke instantly smiled. "I guess you did take pretty good care not to let me cut it off."

"How could I kiss you if I let you cut it off?"

"So it was your plan all along to end this fencing thing in kissing?" Clarke asked, her eyebrow quirking up as she fell into Lexa's gaze.

"You got a problem with that?" Lexa asked, suddenly dipping her head and attaching her lips to Clarke's neck, getting a hum out of the blonde.

"Mm, no."

Lexa murmured against the blonde's smooth skin, "Good."

* * *

Clarke and Lexa were sitting on one of the benches in the back parts of the camp, just talking, about half an hour later, when a flustered Octavia was suddenly bounding over to them. "Hey! Have either of you seen Echo at all today?"

"I haven't seen her since yesterday," Lexa replied. "Like midday. I don't think she slept at the cabin, now that I think about it."

"I thought you were making today a stress free day, O?" Clarke asked, looking to her friend with concern.

"This isn't about competition. At first, I thought her being MIA was about it, but you know what I just found out from Lincoln?" Octavia sounded absolutely infuriated, so Clarke braced herself. "Apparently, Bellamy didn't sleep in his cabin last night either. And this morning after I saw him grabbing food, he faked heading over to his friends and then left the mess hall with his food."

"Oh god," Clarke muttered, trying not to roll her eyes.

"Do you really think I'm crazy?" Octavia demanded. "They're totally hooking up!"

"Octavia," Clarke interrupted, "you thought Raven and I were hooking up, so I think we both know that what you first suspect might not be exactly the truth."

"She thought you and Raven were hooking up?" Lexa asked. Clarke just nodded, because Octavia was starting to talk again.

"I'm serious, Clarke," Octavia snapped. "He wouldn't side with me against Echo this morning, and he skipped dinner last night, and so did Echo. What else would they be doing? They've low key been attracted to each other forever, anyway. I just don't understand why they suddenly went from hating each other to hooking up with each other."

"Maybe they grew up," Clarke suggested.

Octavia narrowed her eyes. "Screw you, Clarke, you're not that much older than me."

"I literally said nothing about that."

"Whatever, don't believe me. I'll prove it," the girl stated surely, before turning and leaving the way she'd come.

Clarke just shook her head when her friend was gone. "I don't understand." Lexa let out a laugh. "She's always obsessing over something. I thought this was supposed to be a break from high school."

"At least you only have a year left of high school," Lexa reasoned. "I have to live with drama like that for another two years."

"Good luck with that," Clarke said, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"I just hope all the shit that high school consists of is worth it in the end."

Clarke smiled. "I guess it depends on what you make the rest of your life out to be."

"I guess one day we'll find out then," Lexa said, amused as she smiled at the blonde, who returned the expression fondly. Honestly, looking to the future seemed much less necessary when she was with Lexa. For once during this summer, she was actually just enjoying the present.


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay, just so you know, I'm pretty sure that you're actually clinically insane," Clarke insisted as she followed Octavia through the woods.

"I've been checked out," Octavia said, sounding amused, "and the doctor said I'm not. Plus, I'm not just supposing this out of nowhere. I told you that they're both being sketchy and they were both gone all night from their cabin. How many things do you think they could've been doing?"

"Okay, but why do you care?" Clarke asked.

"I have to make sure that Bellamy doesn't get corrupted by her," the younger girl answered. "If my brother was turned against me, I'd actually have to kill her."

"What if she starts actually being more of a decent person, and then finds out you were snooping up in her business?" Clarke tried, just hoping to get out whatever this topic secret mission was that Octavia was dragging her out on.

"Come on, we're almost there," Octavia said, ignoring the blonde's attempts at getting out of the situation.

"Where exactly is there?" Clarke asked, groaning as the ground suddenly became uphill.

Octavia stepped out into a clearing suddenly, and Clarke followed her. It was a small clearing, but compared to the ones she'd seen previously, it was a decent size. "This, is the hookup spot. People always bring blankets and shit out here to hookup, since there's really not many other places to get it on."

"Alright..." Clarke found something kind of creepy about the clearing where people were known to have sex. "And?"

Octavia produced the same small camera that she used to film Echo and the frog from the bag she'd brought along with her. Clarke's eyes bugged.

"Octavia! You can't video people having sex!"

"I'm not an idiot, Clarke, I know that," the girl replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm just going to set it up pointing to the entrance, so we'll see who comes here at night."

"What if they didn't come tonight? Your camera would die," Clarke said, as Octavia knelt down by some trees a little bit away and nestled the camera into the plants by it. It did blend in pretty well, and the darkness of night would make it basically invisible.

"I'll come back tomorrow and check, and then I'll switch out the battery if I need to. I brought loads."

"Like I said, clinically insane."

* * *

"Your girlfriend is clinically insane."

Raven huffed, "I wish."

"That she was insane?" Clarke asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No, you weirdo. That she was my girlfriend, obviously." Raven rolled her eyes. "What did she do?"

"She's basically stalking Echo and Bellamy, because she thinks they're sleeping together," Clarke replied, quirking up an eyebrow. "I mean, whether or not they're sleeping together, stalking just seems pretty extreme."

"Yeah, she is sort of crazy."

Clarke just sighed. "I feel like I'm constantly expecting her to like run around the corner yelling about some new advancement she's made in her mission."

Suddenly, the sound of feet on dirt could be heard, and Octavia was rushing up to the two of them. Clarke gave a pointed look to Raven, who was trying not to laugh. "Have either of you seen Echo?"

"No, Octavia," Clarke answered.

"It's so hard to keep track of two people at once. Could you guys look for her for me?" the girl asked, looking like her thoughts were running at fifty miles a minute.

Clarke tried not to look too annoyed, but if she was being honest, Octavia's constant obsession with stuff like this was beginning to get frustrating. "No, I can't."

Octavia blinked. "Are you mad?"

"I'm just... I don't know. I'll see you later," the blonde muttered, getting up from the bench she was sitting next to Raven on, and walking out of the area. She was getting bored at this continuous pattern.

She briefly considered going to her cabin, but realized that Octavia might look for her there. Sure, it would probably just be to apologize, because Octavia really wasn't crazy, but Clarke opted to go somewhere where she knew she'd be alone – her and Lexa's dock spot.

She passed a few people on her way down to the lake, but when she slipped silently into the treeline and started for the dock, she was pretty sure that no one had seen her. A feeling of guilt spread through her as she walked, though, because she really wasn't mad at Octavia. It was just starting to get on her nerves, the intensity of this competition. It wasn't Octavia's fault or even Echo's fault, it was just the camp. Suddenly, she remembered why she'd been so put off about being here in the first place.

Her eyebrows furrowed with frustration, she found herself turning back around and heading for her cabin, needing her sketchbook. She knew that she wouldn't be able to calm down unless she had something to focus on.

Once she had her sketchbook and a handful of pencils, she started back for the dock. She wondered if she should just draw something from her own mind, since the trees and lake were always the same and boring enough to look at, let alone draw.

She felt the crease in her forehead disappearing a bit as she pondered her surroundings. She didn't usually like being around nature, but there were some beautiful things that she could draw. She'd seen quite a few butterflies around, and she could probably draw one from her memory by now.

The image was coming together in her mind as she continued her walk, and just as she was emerging from the trees at the dock, she snapped out of her daze as she noticed someone sitting at the dock. It took her only a handful of seconds to identify it as Lexa. The brunette hair was damp, and she was wearing her bikini, but it looked like she'd been there for a while.

Clarke took in a silent breath, wondering if she should go over, because it seemed like Lexa might want to be alone. Despite having wanted to be alone as well, Clarke wouldn't mind being with Lexa, but she had no evidence that that feeling was mutual. She hadn't ever been around Lexa when the brunette wasn't happy – though that seemed like always.

She ended up deciding to leave the girl alone, but as she took a step back, she stepped on a few twigs, which snapped noisily and drew Lexa's attention immediately. She looked alarmed until she saw that it was Clarke. A smile immediately appeared on her face. "Hi."

"Hey," Clarke replied. "Uh, I didn't know you were here."

"I was bored," Lexa explained, shrugging her shoulders. "Were you looking to be alone?"

Clarke nodded, but she was now making her way over to Lexa, and took a seat next to her. "Yeah, but I don't mind if you're here." She crossed her legs and set her sketchbook on top of them, not opening it yet. "I had to get away from camp. Octavia is stressing me out."

Lexa frowned. "Oh. I'm sorry." Clarke just shrugged, grateful that Lexa hadn't inquired further about the situation. "Were you gonna draw?"

"I don't know what I should draw," the blonde returned, finally opening the sketchbook to the next clean page. "Any suggestions?"

"I dunno," Lexa replied. She turned her body so that she was facing Clarke, and leaned against one of the wooden posts that stuck up on the edge of the dock. "I actually came over here to get away from camp, too."

"What happened?" Clarke wondered, because she was getting the vibe that Lexa wanted to talk about it.

As the brunette began to talk, Clarke found that her pencil began to move across the paper, forming the shape of Lexa's face. "I guess I'm just missing being able to be alone. There's like no privacy here, you know? The cabins lock, but anyone who has the key can get in."

"Yeah. I kind of forgot about why I didn't want to be here in the first place, and all of the drama between the pods and shit is reminding me," Clarke muttered, her pencil carefully outlining perfectly shaped eyes.

"You really don't like it here, huh?"

Clarke glanced up at the brunette, who was looking at her with a careful expression. "It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be." As she said it, she felt her cheeks warm and she immediately lowered her gaze back down to her drawing. It was a rough sketch, but it was pretty clear who the subject was.

"Well, that's good," Lexa said, laughing lightly. "I didn't think there would be this much drama either. I'm trying to stay pretty removed from it."

"Same, but Octavia keeps trying to pull me into it," Clarke said, sighing.

"She still trying to figure out if Echo and Bellamy are sleeping together?" Lexa wondered, quirking up an eyebrow. Clarke nodded, glancing up again.

"Apparently there's a spot in the woods where people have sex a lot," Clarke replied.

"I think that's weird," Lexa said. "I mean, I feel like unless you had a nice tent, that would be so uncomfortable."

Clarke laughed. "Yeah, same, I don't know. I guess it's just too hard to keep other people out of the cabins."

"That's true. Like I said, there's hardly any privacy here. Especially if they're hooking up at night. No one ever goes into our cabin during the day," Lexa said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I wouldn't know about mine. I don't usually go there during the day," the blonde admitted, looking back down at her sketchbook in order to continue her drawing. "If no one ever goes into your cabin, why don't you just go there when you want to be alone?"

"This is nicer," Lexa answered, without hesitation. "Plus, if there's a chance I'll see you here, that doesn't bother me either."

Clarke smiled at the picture she was drawing, aware of the blush on her cheeks and feeling too shy to look up and meet the brunette's glowing green eyes that she knew where focused just on her. "Fair enough," Clarke said, her smile practically able to be heard in her voice.

They sat there for a while, and Clarke kept glancing up at the brunette as she drew, though Lexa didn't notice, because she began to doze. She looked like a picture out of a movie, her eyelids fluttering slightly, indicating that she wasn't in a deep sleep. Her hair was coming over her shoulder, resting against her bare skin. Whatever water had been left on her body was now dry, and clad only in her bikini, her flawless skin was visible nearly everywhere.

Clarke found herself visibly gulping as her pencil copied the perfect picture in front of her. Despite that, though, it was far more peaceful sitting there drawing Lexa, than it would've been if she'd been completely alone.

After about half an hour, the brunette hummed, waking up slowly. Clarke glanced up as her green eyes fluttered open, glancing around like she was momentarily confused. They stuck when they fell on Clarke, though. "Hi," she murmured.

"You took a nap," Clarke said obviously, her lips turning up into a small smile.

Lexa let out a light laugh. "Thanks, didn't realize. Have you been drawing this whole time?"

"It's only been like thirty minutes," Clarke reasoned, "but yeah, I have. You make a nice sleeping model." She bravely turned her sketchbook around so that Lexa could see it, and the green eyes that Clarke was staring at widened as they looked on the sketch.

"Wow, you're really good."

"You're really nice to draw," Clarke bounced back, though her cheeks were warming up. They tended to do that a lot around Lexa. She closed the sketchbook, and Lexa's gaze rose up to the blonde's face. They were quiet for a moment, and then Lexa suddenly adjusted her position slightly.

"I feel like swimming."

"Don't you always?" Clarke asked, laughing lightly as she set her sketchbook next to her and put her hands in her lap. "Go ahead and swim, I'm not stopping you."

"You should swim with me," Lexa suggested, widening her eyes slightly hopefully.

"I didn't wear anything to swim in under this today," Clarke said, and Lexa rolled her eyes.

"Fine." She scooted to the edge of the dock and then pushed herself off of it, submerging herself into the lake water. A few moments later, she resurfaced, turning and looking up at the dock at Clarke, who was turning her body slightly to face the water. "You sure?"

"I'm not swimming in these clothes."

Lexa quirked up an eyebrow. "You could take them off." Clarke almost choked on air as the brunette made the suggestion. A smirk appeared on Lexa's face a second later, though, and Clarke could only imagine what her face had looked like. "Suit yourself."

She dove under water again, and Clarke just scooted a bit closer to the water, hanging her legs off of the edge and peering down to see if she could see Lexa through it. She couldn't, because it was so murky. Just as she was thinking about how gross lake water was, the swimmer suddenly broke the surface of the water again and grabbed both of Clarke's shoe-encased feet, pulling her into the water.

Clarke squealed as she was suddenly submerged in water, and when she came up, Lexa was a few feet away from her, like she was expecting a counterattack. "Lexa!" Clarke exclaimed. "I'm fully dressed!"

"That was your call," Lexa said, smirking evilly.

Clarke huffed, staying afloat and she reached into the water and took off her shoes, setting them up on the dock. "Fine, I'm in the water now." She wasn't even upset now, though, because Lexa's gaze seemed to be permanently stuck on her, and it was impossible to think if anything other than those eyes. "Happy?"

"Yes," Lexa replied, daring to swim closer now. Clarke let her come about a foot closer, and then she sent a splash of water in the girl's direction, and Lexa squeaked. "Hey!"

"You pulled me in the water!" Clarke exclaimed.

Lexa hummed. "I'm sorry," she said, smiling widely as she started swimming closer again. "Forgive me?"

"You're a dork," Clarke said, tempted to splash the girl again but opting not to.

"And?"

Clarke rolled her eyes at the question, but her breath was suddenly stolen from her as Lexa reached her, and wrapped her arms around her body. "Mm, and I don't mind," Clarke returned, her voice barely a whisper now. The silent world around them was barely there – the green of the trees weren't needed anymore once Lexa's eyes were there, looking into Clarke's.

"Good to hear," Lexa murmured. Clarke swallowed thickly, her gaze falling on plump lips that she wanted so desperately to lean in and kiss, and following their movements as Lexa teased, "What are you staring at?"

Clarke didn't even answer, immediately closing the distance in between them and pressing her lips against Lexa's. Lexa's arms immediately tightened around Clarke's body, keeping them flush against each other.

The blonde, feeling some sense of confidence, or maybe just hormones, overwhelm her, took control of the kiss, delving her tongue into Lexa's mouth and placing her hands on the bare skin on Lexa's torso under the water. "Mm," Lexa hummed. They separated for air for a split second, and then joined together again, their kiss hot and messy and, fuck, it was everything that Clarke needed.

Lexa began to take control of the kiss, though, as her hands slid up and under Clarke's soaked shirt and pressing her fingers into the smooth skin here. The blonde let out a needy moan into Lexa's mouth. The swimmer's left hand suddenly dropped lower than Clarke's back and grasped the back of Clarke's thigh instead, pulling it up against her body. The water made the movement slightly awkward.

Clarke hummed against Lexa's lips, pulling away slightly and mumbling, "Can we get out of the water?"

"Whatever you want," Lexa murmured, and their lips joined for another moment before they had to break apart to climb up onto the dock. When they were both standing on it, Clarke tore off her shirt – partially because it was soaked through and just annoying, but also because she needed to be as close as possible to Lexa.

The brunette embraced her as soon as the shirt was gone, pressing their bodies and lips together once again. Then Lexa's lips were suddenly at Clarke's neck, and along her collarbone, and somehow she'd been pushed against one of the small trees at the edge of the treeline. "Lexa," Clarke moaned, before pulling the girl's face up back to hers, stealing her lips in a fiery kiss.

"Yes?" Lexa muttered hotly against the blonde's lips, before pulling away a tiny distance. Clarke tried to grab her lips again with her own, but the brunette pulled away a fraction of an inch more, stopping her and raising a challenging eyebrow.

"Lexa," Clarke growled.

"Yes?" Lexa asked again, her green eyes extremely darkened. "What do you want, Clarke?"

"You," Clarke whined, trying again to get the girl's lips back but to no avail.

"What about me? What do you want me to do?" Lexa asked, her voice so low, and Clarke could feel the wetness in between her legs.

Clarke practically whimpered. "I want you to fuck me, Lexa."

"Right now? Here?"

"I don't fucking care, Lexa," Clarke growled. The sexual tension in her body had been building up for far too long since her first kiss with Lexa, and she needed it relieved now. "Yes."

Lexa's lips were back on Clarke's, finally, and her hands were roaming the bare skin on Clarke's torso. The blonde mildly wished that they weren'toutside, because or else she might've torn her bra off by now, because it just felt so I the way.

Lexa made do, though, grabbing the edges of Clarke's pants and pulling them downward, the button popping undone by itself. Clarke wiggled out of them, and once they were off, Lexa pinned her properly against the tree. Her bare leg pushed itself in between the blonde's thighs, pushing against her center, but hardly relieving anything.

Clarke was pretty sure that the brunette really liked to kiss her neck, because her lips were there again in a moment, sucking on the skin there and causing the blonde to tilt her head upwards. She found herself grinding on Lexa's leg desperately, but the brunette apparently saw more value in taking her time.

Finally, though, Lexa's hand slid into Clarke's underwear, which was soaked both from the water and now from her core, and gently touched her. Clarke immediately gasped, her body bucking slightly, trying to get any closer to the touch. Lexa began to explore Clarke's lower lips, and the blonde moaned, rocking against her fingers and feeling the tension build up inside of her. "Fuck," she groaned, before biting down on her lower lip.

Lexa bit down lightly on the skin on her shoulder, and Clarke moaned, her body feeling too many things at once to register any specific feeling other than ecstasy. And finally, she felt release, as her body exploded into a thousand different sensations, and she moaned out Lexa's name like it was a lifeline.

She breathed heavily for a moment, before opening her eyes and suddenly being met by a dark, green gaze. "That what you wanted?"

"Fuck yes," Clarke breathed out, before suddenly shoving her lips against Lexa's, knowing that both of their lips were swollen by this point, and maneuvering them so that their positions were reversed.

Lexa whimpered once she realized that she was now under Clarke's control, and her hands tried to pull Clarke impossibly closer.

"What about you, Lex? What do you want?"

Lexa's hand suddenly found Clarke's, taking hold of it and sliding it into her own bikini bottoms. "Touch me, please."

Clarke obliged, feeling Lexa's body begging for more as she did so.

"Lexa?" A voice suddenly said, followed by a, "Holy shit! I did not need to see that!"

Clarke and Lexa were basically flailing as they pulled apart, turning to see Anya, with her hand over her eyes. "Anya! What the fuck?" Lexa exclaimed.

"Someone said they hadn't seen you all day and I thought you might be here! Glad to know that you showed this spot to blondie and decided to make it a hookup spot, though," Anya said sarcastically. "No offense, Clarke."

Clarke crossed her arms over her bra, glancing between Lexa and Anya awkwardly. "Ah... I'm gonna... go." She slid her shorts and shirt on, followed by her shoes, and then grabbed her sketchbook. "Um, I'll see you later, Lexa."

"Yeah," Lexa replied, grabbing Clarke and placing a gentle kiss on her lips, and Clarke pulled away with a smile, before disappearing into the woods.

Lexa looked back to Anya. "What?"

"So, you and Clarke are actually fucking now?"

"Well, we sure were trying to," Lexa replied, "before you showed up. What's up, why were you looking for me?"

"Thought I'd let you know the good news," Anya said, sounding amused in the way that made Lexa know that whatever it was was not good news.

* * *

"She did what?" Clarke exclaimed.

"Yeah, she straight up walked into the mess hall and just confronted Echo about it. Of course, that didn't go too well. They nearly started pulling each others' hair out. Wanna know the best part?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not really?"

Raven smirked. "Faculty is pissed. Pod One and Pod Six will now be required to spend the weekend in tents, in the field. We got assigned a tent buddy from the other pod." Clarke's eyebrows rose. "You got Caris."

"Well shit."

"Wanted Lexa?"

"Shut the fuck up."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "What's got you all snappy?"

"Nothing," Clarke muttered. Even though she felt quite relieved sexually, she was very disappointed about not being able to please Lexa all of the way.

"Why are you all wet?"

"I went swimming."

Raven blinked. "In your clothes?"

"Yes."

"With your sketchpad?"

"It didn't go into the water."

"Were you with Lexa?" Raven finally asked.

"Do you know any other swimmer who could get me to swim fully clothed?"

"I hope she pushed you in."

Clarke smirked, remembering how she'd pushed her friend into the lake the previous day. "She pulled me in, actually. I'd say I ended up with the better half of the deal, though."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Clarke!"

Clarke narrowed her eyes. "I'm not telling you things anymore, Raven."

"What? Because I told Octavia about you and Lexa? Anyone with eyes knew that you two were totally interested in one another!" the brunette exclaimed. "Come on! Did you two finally have sex?"

Clarke took a wide step around her friend, pointedly avoiding the question and making her way toward her cabin – she needed to wash up and change.

"Clarke!"

"See you at the tents tonight, Raven!"


	11. Chapter 11

The first night spent in the tents was not at all enjoyable. Turns out that Caris, who Clarke had never spoken to, wasn't too bad, but she wouldn't stop talking – even once Clarke was physically laying down with her eyes closed. It made sleeping a challenge, obviously, but finally a little after midnight, the girl stopped talking and went to sleep.

It didn't help, also, that when she woke up, Caris accidentally stepped on Clarke, waking the girl up far too early.

She gave into waking up early, though, and stepped out of the tent, ready to make her way back to her cabin to wash up. That was one thing that the camp administrators were allowing them to do – use their bathrooms.

The field was littered with lots of tents, though they were mostly spread out pretty well. Clarke a feeling that this wasn't much of an unusual occurrence at Camp Unite – or else why would they have so many tents readily available?

Clarke wasn't sure where Octavia's tent was, but she knew that she was sleeping in the same one as Echo. Whether or not the two of them actually obeyed the order was a mystery, because Clarke was sure that either of them would've slept out on the grass rather than share a tent. She knew that Raven was paired with one of the girls from a different cabin than Echo's. She also knew that Harper, from her own cabin, was sharing a tent with Lexa.

She didn't know where any of them were, though, so she just stumbled tiredly down toward the camp.

She found quite a few people already up and getting ready in the cabin once she reached it. She only took a handful of minutes in the bathroom, though, since the tent had actually been relatively clean, and she'd showered the night before. She supposed that she would shower again that night before being forced back out to that damn tent.

While getting ready, Clarke overheard someone saying that Octavia had woken up a while ago, storming out of her tent. The blonde assumed that her friend was already in the mess hall, so she took a chance and headed over to the building once she was ready for the day.

Sure enough, when she walked into the nearly empty mess hall, her eyes caught on her two friends sitting together, talking quietly. Clarke almost felt bad about interrupting them, because she knew that Raven liked Octavia, but she had no one else to sit with at this point. Grabbing one of the breakfast plates set out, she quickly made her way over to the table.

"Morning," she said to them.

"How was camping with Caris?" Raven asked her.

Clarke shrugged. "She never stops talking to you, even when you're trying to sleep. Ugh."

"Clarke," Octavia said suddenly, surprising the blonde. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I know you're not like, really mad, but I feel really bad about it. I guess I do take this summer camp stuff a little too seriously, and I'm just not used to it affecting other people very much."

"It's okay," Clarke promised, a smile finding its way to her face. "Seriously."

"Okay, but still, like I feel like I owe you something," Octavia said. "If there's anything I could do to help you with anything, just say the word."

Suddenly, an idea popped into Clarke's head. "Actually, there is one thing."

"What?" Octavia asked.

"Do you think you could get Harper to crash in my tent tonight?"

"Yeah, probably. Why?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Because Harper is sharing a tent with Lexa."

"Not tonight she's not," Clarke stated, not letting the teasing bother her, because she was determined to do a particular thing tonight. "Just don't mention it to Lexa at all."

"Sure," Octavia replied, smirking. "Shouldn't be too hard, anyway. Harper likes to talk, so maybe she'll get along with Caris."

As she finished her sentence, they all suddenly heard a voice a few tables away say, "Yeah, thanks to Octavia."

The three of them looked in the direction the voice had come from, and saw Echo with a few of the people from her cabin. "Excuse me?" Octavia snapped.

"I'm pretty sure that I wasn't talking to you," Echo replied, her cold gaze switching to look toward the brunette.

"Well, when you choose to talk about me when I'm close enough to hear you, it kind of makes your conversation immediately my business," the younger girl snapped.

Echo scoffed. "We were just talking about why my whole pod has to sleep in fucking tents for the weekend. Of course, you being the crazy bitch you are, you had to go and blow up about a bunch of shit that's not even true."

"Maybe if you weren't such a pain in the ass-"

"Hey," Clarke snapped, surprised at herself, "if either of you want to be back in our cabins on Monday, you need to quit acting like little kids. You're digging us all in deeper."

Octavia purposefully clamped her mouth shut, glaring at Echo, and turning back to look at Raven and Clarke. "Anyway, where were we?"

"This isn't third grade, Octavia, let go of the fucking past," Echo called suddenly, as she and her posse were getting up from their table and heading out.

Octavia whipped around to glare at the girl, but Echo wasn't looking their way anymore. "I seriously hate her," the brunette growled.

"What was she talking about?" Clarke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Octavia let out a huff. "When we were kids at another summer camp together, we first met because we were staying in the same cabin area – I was the top bunk, and she was the bottom bunk. At first, we actually got along, and then I beat her at some game. She went like crazy about it, and since then, she's literally never let me win at anything."

"Sounds like she's the one who needs to let it go," Raven said, blinking.

"Yeah, well, I don't think she sees it that way," the younger girl stated, rolling her eyes. "It's whatever. I really couldn't give a fuck about her."

"You say, as you've been plotting this entire summer a way to beat her."

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

Raven was feeling quite squeamish as they left the mess hall from breakfast. After spending an hour or so with just Octavia and no drama this morning, before Clarke had joined them at the table, she knew that she had to tell her crush how she felt. She couldn't not . It was aching too much not to.

She couldn't do it while Clarke was around, though, obviously, because it needed to be a moment between just the two of them. At the same time, she didn't want to make it into a big enough deal to pull Octavia aside. She would wait until Clarke was elsewhere – which was bound to happen. Lexa always managed to come and steal her blonde friend away, but Raven didn't really mind. She knew that Clarke hated camp, but the girl was clearly falling into some deep feelings for Lexa, and she couldn't be mad at that. After all, wasn't she hoping do get the same thing from Octavia?

The three of them met up with Lincoln, Bellamy, Harper, Monty and Jasper by the lake, who were immediately intrigued by what exactly had happened to get two pods punished. Octavia began to explain, obviously making Echo out to be the bad guy, and Raven was silent, mostly just watching the brunette that she was crushing on.

Clarke added things in a few times, clarifying the story or making sure that Echo wasn't made out to be the complete bad guy. Raven had a feeling that she was doing that mostly for Bellamy's benefit, because the guy was clearly uncomfortable about the topic. It was easy to see that he probably had been sleeping with Echo, and maybe had even real feelings for her. Raven wouldn't have been surprised, that was for sure.

About half an hour of talking, Raven was getting tired of standing up, and was feeling a bit antsy about not getting to talk privately with Octavia.

What she knew would happen, though, finally did, and she saw Lexa approaching them from the corner of her eye. She didn't say anything, though, because she was low key hoping that the girl was going to scare the fuck out of Clarke again. Instead, the brunette snaked her arms suddenly around the blonde's midsection, and Clarke started for only an instant before visibly relaxing. It was sickeningly adorable.

"Hey," Clarke murmured. Not everyone in the group had noticed the new arrival, but Raven's eyes were on them. Clarke turned herself around to face Lexa, who kept her arms wrapped around her. "How was your night?"

"Awful," Lexa answered. "I mean," her eyes jumped to where Harper was standing, laughing about something that Jasper had said, "no offense to Harper. I would have rather been somewhere else. Yours?"

"Caris talks a lot," Clarke muttered.

Lexa laughed lightly. "She does. Now you know one seventh of the lovely group of people I get to live with on a daily basis. So. What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Clarke answered, and a smile formed on Lexa's face. "Why?"

"Wanna go swimming?"

"As long as you let me go change into a bikini first," Clarke replied, amusement in her voice.

"Of course," Lexa agreed, now grinning. Then the two of them were gone, and Raven had been, apparently, the only one in the group to notice.

It was another few minutes before Octavia noticed, and looking at Raven curiously. "Where did Clarke go?"

"Lexa," Raven answered casually, shrugging her shoulders. Octavia made an O shape with her mouth and nodded, before seeming to remember something and turning to the group.

"Hey, Harper," she said, drawing the girl's attention. "Do you mind doing me a huge favor?"

"Depends on what it is," Harper said with a cheerful smile.

"Do you mind switching tents with Clarke tonight? I owe her and she really uh... needs to talk to Lexa tonight."

Raven snickered, "Yeah, talk."

"Yeah, sure, I guess I don't mind," Harper answered, shrugging her shoulders.

Bellamy raised an eyebrow. "What's going on between Clarke and Lexa?"

"They're obsessed with each other," Raven answered, waving her hand dismissively. She wasn't going to be the one to do anymore blabbing about her blonde friend's relationship, or whatever it was, with Lexa. "Pay attention, you'll notice it easily."

It was about thirty minutes later that Octavia said that she was going to the bathroom, and Raven offered to tag along with her. Halfway up to to their pod, no one was around, and the older girl cleared her throat in preparation to talk. "Hey, O, can I talk to you about something real quick?"

"Of course," Octavia answered, smiling at her. "What's up?"

"Um..." Raven tried to gather her thoughts, and her crush stopped walking, furrowing her eyebrows as she realized that this was a serious discussion. "So... do you really like Lincoln?"

The younger girl shrugged. "I like him, plus he's really hot. Why? Do you like him too?" Raven was already shaking her head.

"Oh, no. Um. Actually, I really don't know how to... ah, to say this. The reason that I was avoiding you last weekend... and the reason that Clarke lied about knowing where I was -"

"Wait, Clarke did lie?" Octavia interrupted, looking hurt.

Raven let out a breath. "It's my fault she lied, Octavia. I asked her to, because I was really upset."

"What' wrong?" the girl asked, immediately dropping her hurt expression and looking more concerned than anything.

"I... I like... I like you, Octavia."

Octavia looked completely taken off guard, like she had never considered that a possibility, and that made Raven's heart ache. "Oh... Raven..."

Raven was shaking her head. "This was stupid, I shouldn't have... I should've just kept quiet about it."

"No, Raven, it's good that you told me," Octavia insisted, but the other girl was shaking her head.

"No, it's not. I... I need to... go."

Octavia's eyes followed her friend, who was rushing off in a different direction, to somewhere, to be alone no doubt. She had no idea what to do, or what to say, or if she should even do anything. She was completely caught off guard, yes, but that didn't mean that she wanted to flat out reject Raven. That wasn't what she meant to do.

"Fuck..."

* * *

By the time dinner came around, Clarke was ready for it to be finally time to go up to the tents and sleep.

But not because she wanted to sleep.

She spent a good portion of the day with Lexa, swimming and talking. It was nice, relaxing, but it also consistently reminded the blonde of her unfinished job from the previous day, and she so badly wanted to finish it.

When she was heading the mess hall for dinner, without Lexa, who had said something about wanting to shower before eating, Clarke was sure that Octavia must've already asked Harper about switching tents.

When she sat down with Octavia for the meal, she asked the girl to make sure, and received a lame nod in return. Something was off about her.

"What's up?" Clarke asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Nothing."

"Where's Raven?"

"I don't know."

Clarke blinked, and the feeling that she knew what had happened was creeping up on her. "Octavia, seriously."

"I don't know where she is, Clarke," Octavia snapped. "I'm surprised that you don't, though, since you knew last time and lied to me about it." The blonde was silent for a moment.

"I guess she told you."

"Yeah, and before I could even say anything, she ran the fuck away."

Clarke let out a slow breath. "You can't really blame her. She's terrified."

"What is she so scared of?" Octavia demanded. "It's not like I'm going to hate her or something!"

"She doesn't know that," Clarke argued, "and not to mention, you've fawned over Lincoln since this camp started, and she's started crushing on you almost that long ago, too. You're a bit much sometimes, Octavia, and she doesn't know what to expect from you. Hardly anyone does."

Octavia let out a long sigh. "I need to talk to her, but she won't talk to me. I don't even know where she is. I checked her tent and her cabin. Nowhere to be found."

"I'm sure she's just hiding out somewhere. If she's not back for breakfast tomorrow morning, I'll help you look for her, okay? We'll all go on a search party." The brunette nodded halfheartedly, and Clarke tried not to sigh.

Dinner was nearly silent between the two of them, and by the end of it, Clarke needed a mental reprieve, and she knew where to get it. Lexa.

She made her way to her cabin, changing into comfier clothes after taking a shower. She felt clean and light as she made her way to the fields. She was worried about her friends, that was sure, but right now, she didn't want to think about the drama. She knew that Raven would be okay, she knew that Octavia wouldn't be mad forever. It was easy to let it wash off in the shower for the night, because Clarke knew that it would be okay.

Plus, there wasn't much that she could do in regards to her friends right now, anyway.

She could, however, do something in regards to Lexa.

Clarke passed by her tent, hearing two voices coming from inside of it, and smiled contently as she headed toward the tent that she knew was Lexa's. She'd asked the girl about it casually during the day, and now made her way directly there.

She found herself getting slightly nervous as she approached it, but she tried to push all of her nerves away as she pushed open the not yet zipped entrance to the tent.

Lexa was sitting off to the side in it, looking like she may have been prepared to go to sleep, on an area of blankets and pillows that must've been hers. It looked like Harper's had been shoved off to the side a bit, and Clarke wondered if the brunette knew yet that her tent partner had been replaced.

Green eyes fell on her as she entered, though, highlighted with curiosity. "Clarke?"

"Hi," the blonde said quietly, before turning around and purposefully zipping the tent up. When she looked back at Lexa, the girl's eyes had darkened slightly.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm your tent buddy for the night," Clarke answered. "Do you mind?" Lexa shook her head, her eyes stuck on the blonde, who slowly came and sat down on the edge of Lexa's sleeping area, slightly too nervous to get close yet.

"How did you manage that?"

"I pulled a few strings. With Octavia's help. Harper and Caris should get along."

Lexa nodded, "Probably." They were silent for a moment, their eyes just stuck on one another. "You just going to sit over there, then?"

"Fuck no," Clarke muttered, suddenly crawling toward the brunette and placing her lips firmly against the ones that she couldn't seem to stop staring at. Lexa immediately let out a content sigh in the kiss, and the blonde gently pushed her backwards. She wondered if Lexa actually got the better side of the deal – she got to be the bottom on a nice comfy blanket.

Not that Clarke hadn't absolutely enjoyed the previous day.

Lexa had no problem letting Clarke top her, and the blonde had a feeling that the girl was still pretty frustrated from yesterday, because she was squirming under the blonde before more than ten seconds had passed. Clarke kept it slow, though, because she wanted to feel Lexa's body under her.

With one arm supporting herself as her tongue explored Lexa's mouth, Clarke let her free hand run down the side of Lexa's clothed body and grip the bottom of her shirt. As she began to pull it up, and broke their kiss in order to remove it, her breath caught in her throat a she realized that the brunette was not wearing a bra – probably because she'd been about to go to sleep.

Abandoning her intention of going back to plump lips, she instead dropped her mouth to Lexa's chest, pressing hot, wet kisses on the skin around her breasts, and Lexa let out a whimper. "Clarke," she whined, clearly wishing that this was going at a faster pace.

"Shh," Clarke murmured against soft skin, before dragging her lips up to the peak of Lexa's right breast, flicking her nipple with her tongue. She suddenly took it into her mouth, and Lexa let out a needy moan. Her tongue swirled around the small bump, and then she released it and began to kiss lower down, past Lexa's breasts.

She kissed along the skin that she had been unable to tear her eyes away from the previous day, unsurprised by the firmness of the girl's abs. She dragged her tongue against them, appreciating the taste of Lexa's skin, and getting pleasure from the way that Lexa was already starting to rock under her.

She reached the top of the brunette's pants, and she took hold of them forcefully, pulling them down. Before she touched her underwear, though, she looked back up at Lexa. "Is this okay?"

Lexa was nodding furiously. "Yes, Clarke, please." Clarke tried not to smirk as she heard the words, instead hurrying up her process and pulling Lexa's underwear down quickly. She looked onto the girl's center for only a moment before bringing her lips to it, tasting her.

She practically moaned against Lexa's center, and the vibrations elicited a moan from the brunette as well, who could hardly keep her hips still now. Clarke held them still with her hands, beginning her conquest in between Lexa's legs.

It didn't take too long before she could feel Lexa beginning to orgasm, and she knew that Lexa wasn't being particularly quiet, but it was clear that she was trying to be. When she came, Lexa moaned out Clarke's name, and the blonde couldn't help but do it again – this time with her fingers as her mouth trailed kisses back up Lexa's body, and eventually back to Lexa's mouth as she made her come again.

Her breathing uneven, the brunette began to climb down from her high, her bare chest rising and falling rapidly. "Fuck," she gasped, as Clarke straddled her, looking down and wondering at how beautiful Lexa was.

"I wanted to make up for yesterday," Clarke murmured, her hands tracing the faint outline of Lexa's abs, giving the brunette visible goosebumps.

"I think you did that pretty well," Lexa said, still sounding out of breath. "Fuck."

A grin broke out on Clarke's face. "Thank you," she whispered. Lexa looked up at her with curiosity.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"For being here, and making this camp suck way less," Clarke replied, still smiling. A smile formed on the brunette's face as well.

"You're welcome," she replied, reaching for Clarke's face and then pulling her down for a searing kiss, and Clarke melted into her, and it didn't surprise her when a few moments later, she was being topped by the most gorgeous girl ever.

And there was nothing but ecstasy and perfection.


	12. Chapter 12

Clarke woke up feeling a slight chill, but then she realized that the air around her was actually quite warm, and she let her eyes stay shut. Then she became aware of the sound of someone breathing near her, and her blue eyes fluttered open. The sight of Lexa's bare back, with long dark hair cascading down it caught her attention immediately, and she couldn't help the smile that formed across her face.

She was naked now as well. The night that she had in mind had gone on for far longer than she'd anticipated, though she had no complaints about it at all. Her arm extended a little, her pale hand touching the tan skin on the back of the beautiful girl. Lexa adjusted her position slightly, probably because Clarke's hand was cold.

"Mm, Clarke?" Lexa's sleepy voice murmured.

"Who else?" Clarke whispered back, her eyes tracing the shape on the brunette's bare body, which disappeared under the blankets. "You're beautiful."

Lexa hummed again, before turning over to face Clarke. "Thanks."

"What time do you think it is?"

"Who cares?" Lexa asked, scooting a bit closer to the blonde. "We could stay in here all day and pretend like we don't have anywhere else to be. We don't really."

"Yeah we do," Clarke murmured, extremely aware of her close proximity with the girl.

"Says who?" Lexa asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'd rather just stay in here with you. Please?"

Clarke didn't say anything, just smiling instead. "You know, you're really something else, Lexa. I've never met anyone like you."

"I'm assuming that's a good thing," Lexa said, her face just inches from Clarke's.

"Of course," Clarke replied. "I... I've never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I can't be away from you without feeling like I'm missing something."

A smile spread cross the brunette's face, and then she closed the distance between them with a soft kiss. "I like you too," Lexa mumbled against her lips, "a lot."

"Good to hear," Clarke said, once the kiss was broken. "But we can't stay here all day. I have to talk to Raven."

"Why?" Lexa groaned, pouting.

"She told Octavia that she likes her," Clarke replied, "and then she went AWOL. Don't tell her I told you, though. That's supposed to be a secret."

"I could tell," Lexa admitted. "I mean, I could tell that Raven liked Octavia. Her eyes said so."

Clarke nodded. "I have to be there for her, and Octavia. It's hard to be on both sides of it. I feel like I'm supposed to be on Raven's side, but Octavia is clueless and I don't know who I should be talking to."

"I'd stay neutral if I were you," Lexa advised. "I mean, talk to both of them. Don't take sides if it turns the wrong way."

"Yeah," Clarke murmured, sighing. "I should probably get up and go get changed now."

"I still think you should stay here and stay naked," Lexa replied shamelessly, but the blonde was already sitting up, the blankets falling away from her body. Lexa's eyes immediately jumped down to Clarke's chest, and she hummed. "Clarke," she whined.

"Lexa, I have to go," Clarke whined back.

Lexa sat up, suddenly sitting across Clarke's lap. "Can you wait a few more minutes?" Clarke was frozen, feeling Lexa's naked center against her lap, and green eyes bearing into her own. "Please?"

"Lex..."

"Please?" Her lips suddenly fell to Clarke's neck, causing the blonde to moan and lean her head back. "Just another minute?" The hot breath against Clarke's neck made her moan again, and she couldn't believe how easily she was about to give into the brunette.

"Fine, just another minute," Clarke agreed, as Lexa was gently pushing her down against the pillows.

"You won't regret it," Lexa mumbled against her skin, before lowering her lips down the blonde's chest and then midsection, until she was even with her destination. She gently slid her tongue where she knew Clarke wanted it to be, and the blonde let out a gasp, followed by a hungry moan.

Ten minutes later, Clarke's skin was sparkling slightly with sweat, and her breathing was uneven and not settling quickly enough. "Lexa," she breathed, "I said a few minutes."

"You didn't seem so concerned about time before," Lexa cooed, pressing a soft kiss against the corner of Clarke's lips. "I'm sure it's not too late, anyway."

Clarke forced herself to sit up, despite feeling like she could sleep for hours on end. "I need to go find Raven."

"I know," Lexa said, looking up at the blonde as she searched around for her clothes. "Thanks for being my tent buddy. It was a major upgrade."

"Don't stay in here all day," Clarke teased, smiling softly at the brunette as she clipped her bra back on and slid on her comfy clothes that were basically pajamas. "I'll see you later."

"You should probably take a shower," Lexa called helpfully as Clarke started to unzip the tent.

"You should put on clothes," Clarke countered. "See you later."

Lexa sighed. "Bye."

Clarke wasn't surprised to see that the sun was directly above her once she was out of the tent, indicating that it was about noon. She needed to make it down to her cabin, shower, and change before lunch was done being served. And then she needed to make sure that Raven was okay.

By the time she reached her cabin, though, she had a feeling that she would be cutting it close.

After a quick shower, Clarke changed into more presentable clothes and made her way to the mess hall. Octavia was the first person to see her approaching the table with her plate of food in hand. "Hey, where have you been all morning?"

"Elsewhere," Clarke answered, sitting across from her. "Have you seen Raven?"

Octavia nodded. "Early this morning. She was coming out of the woods. She didn't wanna talk to me. Went to her cabin, I think." Clarke sighed.

"I'll talk to her. After I eat."

"What am I even supposed to say, though? When she does talk to me? I don't know if I feel that way for her, Clarke."

Clarke gave her friend a sad smile. "O, you just need to figure it out before you tell her one way or the other. Don't tell her any lies. Whether they make her happy or sad in the moment, either way, don't lie to her."

"I'm just afraid that I won't be able to figure it out before I talk to her," Octavia mumbled. "I haven't really even thought about feeling that way toward her. I guess I kind of assumed that she was more straight than bi. Stupid, I know, but... How am I supposed to figure out how I feel if I've only had a day to think about it?"

"No one is asking you to have it figured out today, Octavia," Clarke said calmly. "Just don't lie to her."

* * *

"Must have been a rough night stuck in that tent with that Harper girl if you didn't wake up until noon. Does she talk more than Caris does?" Anya asked, watching Lexa swim uneven laps between two arbitrary points in the lake.

"Wasn't about Harper."

"So what, are you deathly ill? Since when do you sleep until noon?" Anya demanded, raising an eyebrow and sliding her legs into the water.

Lexa felt herself blushing, but even if Anya saw her face while she was swimming laps, it would look like just the strain from the exercise. Not that it was much strain to do the simple laps. "I didn't share a tent with Harper last night."

Anya blinked, as Lexa stopped her swimming, treading water now so that she could face her best friend. "So... who were you sharing with exactly?"

"You know," Lexa stated, rolling her eyes and diving under the water for a moment. When she came back up, her friend was smirking.

"So you two finally got to finish fucking each other?" Anya asked, and Lexa tried not to let her mind skip back to when Anya caught her and Clarke at the dock the first time around.

"If you wanna say it like that, sure. I can think of nicer ways to put it, though."

Anya didn't acknowledge the statement. "I'm assuming you did a little more than finishing if you stayed up late enough to wake up at noon."

"I'm not sharing every detail of my sex life with you, Anya."

"Why not? You did that when you were dating that other bitch. The one whose ex beat you up."

Lexa scoffed. "I did not share every detail of it."

"You said enough," Anya replied. "C'mon, I saw you guys when her hand was fit neatly into the bottoms of your bikini."

"So what?"

"And I'm your best friend. C'mon, Lex."

"We were up for a while, but we didn't have sex the whole time," Lexa insisted, giving in. "We talked too, about nothing really, but still. I actually woke up at around eleven, but then I laid there for a while and then well... she woke up, and she was naked so like..."

"And you got horny as fuck again and couldn't let her leave?" Anya asked, smirking.

Lexa narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Shut up."

"You're predictable."

"Only because you've known me for so long."

"Someone has to be able to warn your new girlfriends of your weird quirks," Anya said, still amused.

"She's not my girlfriend."

The older girl's eyes bugged, and Lexa returned to her laps, only with a gentler stroke now, because she wanted to be able to maintain the conversation. "Wait, you two spent a whole night fucking each other and you aren't even together?"

"I don't know. She lives hours away from me, she's graduating a year before me. Maybe this is just a summer thing, right?" Lexa wasn't sure that she wanted to believe that it was just a summer thing, but when she thought about it, it didn't seem like it could be more. "Also, could you stop with the 'fucking each other' thing, please?"

"Okay, you can't really think that this is going to only end up a summer thing? You two get heart eyes at each other when the other is around. Not to mention, you clearly care beyond the physical part of it, or you wouldn't care that I keep referring to your sex as fucking."

Lexa stopped her laps again, looking at her friend with a defeated expression. "I don't know, Anya. I really, really like her... but like I said. Totally different cities. She's graduating in less than a year. I have nearly two until I get to graduate."

"Her city is like an hour from ours," Anya snapped. "Plus, I'm going to college literally right at home, and who's to say that she's not going close either?"

"I don't think she's going to go to college right away," Lexa murmured, remembering her conversations with the blonde. "She said she was thinking about taking a year off first."

"Perfect. Get her to shack up in Terra instead of Caelum. No big deal."

"Yes big deal. That's after she graduates, after a whole school year in Caelum, while I'm suffering through junior year in Terra," Lexa reminded her friend. "I can't offer her anything, Anya. I'm basically stuck in Terra for the next two years, and then I have no idea what I want to do with my life."

"I'm just saying, Lex," Anya started, letting out a breath before continuing, "if you really like this girl, and you try to make it work, you could. If you give up on it too fast, you're screwing yourself over before you even get the chance to try."

Lexa blinked, trying not to think too much into it right now, because she was honestly stressed about the whole situation now, and she just wanted to swim laps.

* * *

"Raven?" Clarke called, walking into the girl's cabin. She spotted her sitting in her bed, curled up with a big open in her lap. It looked to be the same zero-g one, but now it was open to nearly the end. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Octavia said that she saw you this morning and you didn't want to talk to her."

Raven cleared her throat, closing her book and setting it aside. "I can't talk to her, Clarke. She's going to make me explain, or she'll tell me that she couldn't ever like me back, or she'll tell me that she likes Lincoln more than me... there's only one thing that she could say that would make me not upset, and the chance that she would say it is so minuscule that there's no point in even listening for it."

"You're hurting Octavia, Raven," Clarke said softly, sitting on the end of her friend's bed. "She's really upset that you won't talk to her, and I know that she has things that she wants to say to you. You kind of left her hanging. You told her something so important, and didn't give her the time to even acknowledge it properly."

"I told you, Clarke, I can't face whatever it is that she has to say back," Raven whined, throwing her hands over her face. "Plus, isn't it ridiculous for me to want to be with her? She lives in a different city – she's in a different grade. What about that matches up? It would be easier if it was, for example, you and me dating. We're from the same area, and we're both graduating next year."

Clarke frowned. "If she likes you back, Raven, you would both work that out. If she doesn't, then you're worrying over that for nothing anyway. All I know is that Octavia cares about you, and she would never reject you as a friend because you developed feelings for her that were beyond that. You can't punish yourself for telling the truth – she's not even trying to do that. She just wants you to be okay."

"I can't yet. I'm not ready. My heart already hurts from just thinking of what she might say."

"Well, I can't make you. But I'm here for you, Raven, and so is Octavia, even if you don't think so, she is."

Raven peeked through her fingers, since her face was still covered by her hands. "Thanks. I'll talk to her when I'm ready, Clarke. Just like before. I can't rush when I'm ready to do things."

"Of course not," Clarke agreed, nodding. "Take your time, Raven, just know that the more you take, the harder it will be."

As Clarke left her friend alone, she tried not to think of the city issue, the grade level issue. How, like Octavia and Raven, she and Lexa were divided by miles and age. She wasn't sure what to do about it, but she knew that she wasn't going to let herself have Raven's outlook, mostly because she'd just discouraged it to her friend, and she wasn't about to become a hypocrite.

She set it in her mind that she would need to figure out a solution.

That is, if she and Lexa were to become official.


	13. Chapter 13

"Listen up, guys!" Octavia shouted, her hands on her hips and her expression focused. "This is not a game of kickball. This is not a scavenger hunt. This is not a chess tournament. This is a war."

Clarke smirked, giving Raven a sidelong glance. The brunette didn't look like she was ready for the day's competition, but she was putting up a pretty good front. Of course, she still had yet to talk to Octavia about anything.

"We have two main objectives," Octavia reminded them all. "The first, defend our flag like it is our only source of happiness. The second, steal away the happiness of every other pod."

"Damn," someone murmured.

"Not literally of course," Octavia said, rolling her eyes, "the flag. We need to steal the other teams' flags."

"Obviously," some guy scoffed. "Why are we still following you like you're our leader? You got us to have to camp out in tents for a weekend!"

Octavia's glare made it look like she was seeing red. "If you came to this camp to lay back and chill, I'm sorry. This is not the camp for you. This camp is about us uniting together and winning. This camp is about beating your friends in a competition, so that you can get first pick of the type of pizza you want tonight. So that you can talk about it all night at the bonfire tonight. If you don't want double stuffed crust and a spot on the figurative pedestal, then go ahead and don't listen to me."

The guy didn't say anything else.

"Okay, so. We need to find a place for our flag, and then decide who's offense and who's defense."

* * *

"How about across the lake? A bit of a walk, but most people would be too lazy to even go check back there," a guy whose name Lexa didn't know offered.

Echo scoffed. "I don't really feel like walking that far either, Ryder. It doesn't really matter where we leave it. If we don't have people guarding it, no one will even notice if it's stuffed somewhere."

"Wait, we're not having anyone guard it?" Lexa asked suddenly, confused.

Echo turned her head swiftly, her eyes narrowed. "We keep it in one spot where people won't really notice it, and then we keep two people about twenty feet away, guarding nothing. Then everyone else goes on offense to find everyone else's flags and collect them. We stash them with our own flag, of course."

"Okay, but what if they do see it?"

"Have you won Capture The Flag before, Lexa?" Echo snapped, stopping in her tracks with her hands on her hips. "No, you haven't. The only reason any of those idiots would figure out where it is, once we hide it, is if someone tells them."

"Excuse me?" Lexa asked, her eyebrows shooting up.

"Maybe you should just stay here until the game starts. We can't really have people whose loyalties might not lie with us knowing where our flag is."

"What exactly are you worried that I'm going to do?" Lexa growled.

Echo cleared her throat. "Are you trying to play innocent now? After you literally spent an entire week chasing after the pretty blonde girl who forsome reason gives you the time of the day." Lexa pursed her lips, trying to hold in her frustration. "Wait, the time of day, and night, right?"

"Shut up, Echo, you don't even know her name," Lexa snapped, "let alone anything about my relationship with her."

"Whatever you say, Lex. Wait here. We'll come and get you once the game starts, and you can work on stealing your fuck buddy's flag," Echo said, turning around with a hair flip, and continuing in the direction that they'd all been walking a few minutes ago. The rest of the pod followed her slowly, aside from Lexa, who hung back. Not because Echo told her to, of course, but because if she continued on, she would end up exploding at the girl at some point or another.

So she stayed where she was, right at the edge of camp, and sat herself down by a tree. She pulled her knees up in front of her, because she was wearing shorts, and skin against dirt was not a nice feeling. She fidgeted with her hands and her finger nails, trying to distract herself from her anger toward Echo.

Instead, she thought about Clarke, the blonde taking over her mind easily. She wanted to be laying next to her again, the feeling of Clarke's soft hands against her skin. Her eyelids fell shut as she thought about it. She was in so deep with Clarke emotionally, but she didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

Her mind drifted back to two nights ago, in her tent with Clarke. She felt so connected to the blonde, even after just the few weeks that they had known each other. Thinking about summer coming to an end felt far away, but also all too close.

It was about fifteen minutes before her pod was back at where she was, without Echo. "Hey," one of the guys greeted her. "We're on Pod One duty."

"Figures," she mumbled, standing up and looking over her teammates. Four guys and two girls, none of whom were in her cabin. "When do we go?"

A loud whistle was suddenly heard over the whole campsite, and the guy who'd spoken to her gave her a pointed look. "Now. Time to find Pod One."

* * *

"Can't I just stand back at the flag and not have to deal with this shit?" Raven grumbled, getting another eye roll from Clarke.

"No, Raven. You can't wallow. C'mon, we need to find someone's flag." They'd split up into search groups, and if a flag was unconquerable, they were to go back to the meet up site – which was about fifty feet from their flag – to get reinforcements. "See anything, Harper?"

"Nope," the girl called, rejoining them. "Do you think a lot of people hid their flags in the woods?"

Clarke shrugged. "Do you think we should cross the field and check the trees over there?"

The fourth person with them – a guy named Kyle – asked, "What about the buildings?"

"Well, we've got quite a few other groups searching," Clarke reminded them. "I think we should go up to the fields."

"Or we could just stay here and pretend to be doing stuff," Raven muttered.

Harper huffed. "C'mon, Raven. We need to be in this together. Let's go to the fields." Clarke headed in that direction. It wasn't too far away from where they'd set up their flag, which was draped over a high branch in the middle of the woods, basically near the clearing that Octavia had claimed was for sex.

After looking across the newly empty fields, Kyle huffed. "I don't think anything is past this."

"Think, do any of us know our enemies well enough to guess where their flags would be?" Harper asked, raising her eyebrows.

Clarke shook her head, because she knew that Lexa was most definitely not the one who hid the Pod Six flag, and all she could think of anyway was the dock... which was also Anya's spot, and Anya was in Pod Three. "Ah, actually... I might know a place."

They went into stealth mode as they headed back down toward the lake. Clarke would've sworn that she kept hearing other people moving around, but she eventually concluded that it was Raven, intentionally making more noise than necessary. Clarke decided not to mention it at all.

When they reached the edge of the lake, they stayed on the tree line, and the dock slowly became visible. As they got closer, Clarke crouched, seeing someone next to it. "Someone's there," she murmured.

"Pod Three?"

Clarke shrugged, and they inched closer. The person was not someone that Clarke recognized, but they kept shifting back and forth, giving her the impression that they were standing there for a reason.

Then she saw it, right under the dock, a green flag – Pod Three. It was wrapped around one of the boards, so it would take more than a second to grab it. About three people were along the tree line, Clarke could now see.

The rules of the game were weird. Everyone had two flag football flags on either side of them, hanging from their belt loops for most people. They came off pretty easily, and once you lost both, you were out of the game. Once you were out, you basically had to chill back in the middle of camp until the game was over.

The game ended when one person got control of all of the flags, or if it ended in a stand still by six that evening, at which point whichever team had the most flags would win.

"Game plan?" Kyle asked Clarke, and the blonde was slightly surprised that both Harper and Kyle were looking at her like she was the leader. Raven was still being mopey.

Clarke looked back at the situation, and took in a deep breath. "Okay, you three need to go into the woods and start making some noise. Distract them, but make sure you're not there when they come to tag you."

"What are you going to do?" Raven asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Clarke smiled. "I'm going for a swim." The three of them hurried into the woods, and Clarke immediately started hearing the breaking of branches and the shaking of bushes and tree limbs. The three people standing guard of the flag reacted quickly, walking further into the woods and calling to each other.

Nice.

Clarke made her way closer to the dock before wading into the water as silently as she could. The water was barely shallow enough for her to stand directly under the dock, but she was grateful for any support she had, because swimming silently was not something she could do.

Holding her breath and standing on her toes, Clarke quickly unwrapped the flag from the wooden. Sure enough, it was a green flag with a black three painted on it. Smiling slightly to herself, she quickly got out of under the dock and rushed out of the water. She whistled as loudly as she could, as was the Pod One regroup signal given to them by Octavia, and immediately the loud noise from the woods stopped.

She was running back toward their meet up site, filled with a strange adrenaline. This was the first time that she had felt excited by a camp competition. She met up with Harper and Kyle and Raven before she reached the meet up site, and at that point, they went back to walking, as silent as possible, through the woods.

When they reached the meet up site, Octavia suddenly emerged from her spot crouched behind some bushes. "You got one?" She actually looked shocked.

"Yep. Pod Three," Clarke replied. "We putting it with ours?"

"Hell no. Anyone find's ours, they'd be able to take both. We're going to circle this spot with them, so find a tree about fifty feet that way," Octavia pointed helpfully, "and toss it up to the top."

"Gotcha."

* * *

"Shit," Anya growled, walking up to the dock, which was empty of her flag. The only two people who would've thought to look there so early on was Lexa or Clarke . She had a feeling it was the latter, and she was now determined to find that girl's pod's flag. "Okay, everyone go on the offensive," she told the rest of her team.

She went off by herself, but she soon heard people, and she crouched. "Could you be any louder Quint?" It was Lexa's voice. "Here let's search around here." It sounded like the group of them started to split up, so Anya peeked out of her hiding spot, seeing Lexa halfheartedly walking around.

Anya knew that her best friend wasn't about to get her out, so she stepped out into the little area. "Hey, you didn't take my flag did you?" Lexa looked over her shoulder, looking surprised.

"No."

"Okay, well then your girlfriend did. We had the dock," Anya muttered, crossing her arms.

"She's not my girlfriend, and it's not my fault that you left it in a spot that she knew about it," Lexa responded, quirking up an eyebrow. "Good for her, though. Pod One deserves a win for once."

"Whipped," Anya commented.

Lexa narrowed her eyes. "Oh shut up, before I get you out."

"If I'm getting out, so are you. Any idea where Pod One's shit is anyway?"

"No, that's what we're looking for," Lexa replied.

"Oh yeah, you're looking so hard."

"Alright, fine, I don't care very much about this stupid game. Echo ruined whatever fun it could've been. She's such a bitch. I nearly started fighting her," Lexa muttered. "She was talking shit about me and Clarke, of course."

"Ignore the bitch, Lexa," Anya said, waving her hand. "Since you're mad at her, though, mind letting me know where your flag is at?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. She didn't want me to know where it is."

Anya's eyes widened. "Wow. Now I might have to fight her if I see her."

"Fight her by not going after Clarke's flags. If Pod One wins, Echo will be knocked down many pegs. I'm excited to see her down there," Lexa muttered. "You should probably go before one of my lovely teammates come out and tag you out."

"Right. See you, Lex."

* * *

The mess hall from noon until one-thirty was a safe zone, and almost everyone was there for lunch. Clarke was only there for a few minutes though, long enough to stuff a sandwich in her mouth, and then she was gone again.

Getting the flag from Pod Three had filled her with a sense of excitement, and she was determined now to win. Octavia, as well, opted out of lunch, asking one of the other defenders to bring her some when he came back. So she was still at the meet up site, and Clarke was setting out to find another flag.

The woods were loud at this point, bit due to people, rather because of bugs and birds that were out at the day got hotter and hotter. Clarke was wearing shorts, which was a relief from the heat, and a burden because of the bugs.

She made her way partially around the lake, in an area that she'd never been before, but headed in only one direction, keeping the camp directly to her back so that she didn't get lost. Honestly, she didn't expect to find anything or anyone, but she suddenly heard someone squeal, and the sound of a flag being yanked off of someone's belt loops could be heard.

"Shit," someone muttered.

"That's two, better get back to camp." The second voice belonged to Echo, that was for sure. Clarke's forehead creased, wondering if Echo had just run into the other person, or if a flag was nearby.

"Yeah, I'm going."

As the shuffling of feet through leaves could be heard, Clarke also caught the sound of someone pulling something, a straining sound. She first wondered what Echo was pulling, and then as she heard the sound moving upwards, she realized that the girl was probably climbing a tree.

Blue eyes went wide as she realized her opportunity.

Holding her breath, Clarke followed the sound and ended up in a tiny clearing with a slightly larger than normal tree at one end of it. About six feet of off the ground on the tree was Echo, her feet just above where Clarke's head would reach. The flags hanging on either side of her pants reached almost that low. Clarke could still reach them.

Silently, as Echo reached for the flag that she was trying to grab, Clarke sneaked up on her. Once she was under the girl, her body worked faster than her mind as she reached upwards with both hands and yanked both flags off of her.

Echo gasped, turning abruptly and almost falling out of the tree. "You bitch!"

Clarke, releasing her breath, smiled. "Sorry." The other girl dropped out of the tree.

"Fuck you." With a clear amount of hurt pride, the girl didn't stick around after that comment, grabbing the flags previously attached to her and disappearing quickly into the woods.

Clarke couldn't help but smile smugly to herself. She was sure that there was something redeemable about Echo, but Clarke couldn't help but feel good about knocking her down a few pegs. She'd made Lexa upset, and Octavia, and that wasn't okay.

Ten minutes later, Clarke was back at the meet up site, another flag in hand. It was Pod Five's. That meant that Pod One had three of the six total flags. They were winning.

"You got another?" Octavia asked, raising her eyebrows.

Clarke nodded. "Pod Five. But guess what's even better."

"What?"

"Echo was after it, and I got her out," Clarke replied, smiling happily.

* * *

"Hey, Lexa," Echo called suddenly, drawing the brunette's attention out of her conversation with Anya and to her cabin mate.

"What?" she asked. It only took her a moment to realize that the girl had no flags hanging from her sides, and her eyebrows raised slightly.

"You got your wish. Your lovely little blondie got me out. And now we're going to lose, and I know that's what you wanted in the first place," Echo growled.

Anya scoffed. "Wow, some faith you have in your teammates, Echo. You're down and now they have no chance?"

"I'm not talking to you," Echo snapped. "I'm talking to Lexa about her bitch of a fuck buddy."

"Shut the fuck up, Echo," Lexa snapped, feeling herself reaching her breaking point. "She's not a bitch, and if you say some shit like that again, your pretty little face is going to end up in the dirt." She realized suddenly that she had stood herself up from where she'd been seated at one of the tables in the mess hall.

"Oh really?" Echo demanded, her eyebrows lifted. "That's cute, standing up for her. One bitch defending another." Lexa took a step closer to Echo. "What are you going to do, Lexa? Fight me? Yeah right."

Before she could stop herself, Lexa's hand was smacking Echo across the face, causing a loud noise that silenced many of the people eating around them. "Don't fuck with me, Echo," Lexa growled, her heart racing. After Echo gave her a wide eyed look, the brunette took a wide step around her and left the mess hall. When she got outside, she took in a deep breath of air, trying to calm herself down. "Shit..."

"Hey, Lexa." It was Raven's voice, so Lexa turned around. "What was Echo saying before you slapped her?"

"Nothing," Lexa muttered, running her stinging hand through her messy hair, and making her way down to the lake. Raven was next to her in a moment, though.

"C'mon, must've been pretty bad if you smacked her across the face."

"She was calling me a bitch," Lexa answered, before letting out a huff and adding, "and Clarke. Because Clarke got her out of Capture the Flag."

Raven's hand was suddenly on Lexa's arm, stopping her from moving. They were about in the middle of camp now, and Raven's expression was serious. "You're cool, Lexa. I kind of misjudged you when I first saw you, because you were with Echo and well... that wasn't fair of me. Clarke really likes you. I'm glad you were sticking up for her."

Lexa felt a smile appearing on her face. "Thanks, Raven."

"Also. Where's your flag?"

"No idea. Echo wouldn't let me know."

"Well shit."

Lexa cleared her throat. "But, I'd check the opposite side of camp from the fields. That's where they were headed."

* * *

"You won't believe what your bae did at lunch," Raven said, surprising Clarke, who jumped and spun around.

"How did you know I was here?"

"Saw a flash of blonde, followed it."

Clarke shook her head, "Also, did you just call Lexa my bae?" Raven nodded. "Okay, well... what did she do?"

"She slapped Echo across the face."

"What? Why?" Clarke's eyes were wide with surprise now, and the flag she was looking for was the last thing on her mind.

"The bitch was calling you a bitch, and Lexa's a protective little thing," Raven answered, smiling. "Also, I have a general idea of where to look for the Pod Six flag, come on."

* * *

At six o'clock that night, food was being served, and Pod One couldn't wipe their grins off of their face. They'd won, finally, and got first pick of the pizza laid out for them to grab. Once they were all seated with their food, the other pods were allowed in to eat.

"I can't believe we did it!" Octavia exclaimed, grinning at Raven and Clarke. "You guys were awesome. I know that I'm annoying as fuck about this stupid competition stuff, so thank you for supporting me."

"I'm not going to lie, it felt great beating Echo," Clarke admitted.

Raven nodded. "It wasn't... too bad."

"Miss Mopey finally started smiling halfway through the day," Clarke said, grinning at her friend and nudging her. Octavia was smiling fondly at Raven, and the older girl rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I only started smiling because seeing Lexa fuck up Echo to defend you gave me an adrenaline rush," Raven insisted. "Ooh, speak of the knight in shining armor." Clarke turned around, following Raven's line of sight, seeing Lexa approaching her with a soft smile on her face. Clarke watched her the whole time that she approached, and smiled as she set her plate next to Clarke's.

"Hey," she chirped, smiling still. "Nice win."

"Betcha never thought you'd be saying that to me about a game that involved running," Clarke said, grinning widely.

"Can't say that I did," Lexa teased.

"I heard that you had a pretty interesting day, too. Specifically at lunch."

"Something like that," Lexa replied. Clarke looked at green eyes for a moment, before realizing that she was unable to resist this girl, and closed the distance between them with a firm kiss. Lexa immediately kissed her back passionately, and after a handful of seconds, Clarke heard Raven cough awkwardly from across the table.

"Get a room," Octavia whined. Clarke pulled away from the brunette with a smile on her face.

Because she couldn't lie, today had been just an awesome day.


	14. Chapter 14

"Hey..."

Octavia turned her head, surprised that anyone was coming into her cabin, especially Raven. "Hey," she replied, turning her body and hanging her legs off of her top bunk. She'd been on her camera, looking at the weird pictures that she and her friends had taken last night, at the bonfire where they celebrated their first win. That could wait, though.

"Can we talk?" Raven asked, looking nervous.

Octavia was already nodding. The past few days had given her a lot of time to think, but she still wasn't exactly sure what she was going to say – it depended on what Raven was going to say. "Of course. You can hop up onto Clarke's bed if you want."

Raven nodded, climbing onto the top bunk that Octavia was gesturing toward. "Um... I wanted to apologize for not really talking to you very much over the past few days. My head was kind of... everywhere."

"I get it, it's fine," Octavia insisted, and she did get it, after thinking about it for a while.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about the way that I feel about you earlier. Obviously, I was pretty nervous about saying anything. I told Clarke, because she kind of figured it out, I guess, but also just because it was easier than talking to you directly," Raven admitted. "I just... I know that you like Lincoln, and you probably haven't ever even considered liking me, but I like you a lot, and it was just hard not telling you, so I had to. I don't think I was really ready yet, though, so that's why I had to... not talk to you... I guess."

Octavia nodded, concern written into her features.

"I'm just afraid of what you're going to say about it so... I mean, you're welcome to talk now if you do have anything to say before I keep rambling like an idiot," Raven muttered, her voice trailing off.

"I mean... you're not wrong, I never really thought about liking you as more than a friend," Octavia started, but quickly continuing her statement before Raven could take it the wrong way, "but I haven't really thought much about anyone like that this summer. I know I talked about Lincoln a lot, and I've hung out with him, and he's really nice, but he and I haven't really... clicked in that way, I guess. So you don't need to worry about that. We're just friends."

Raven didn't say anything in response, simply keeping her eyes on the younger girl.

"Here's the thing, Raven, I do care about you. When I realized that you were avoiding me the first time, I was so upset, and then when you told me that and stopped talking to me again, it was awful. I definitely care about you. I don't know to what extent that carries through, but I do care about you. And this summer... as you've no doubt noticed, I have big plans, and I just... haven't thought about relationships at all."

Raven nodded, and Octavia let out a light sigh, lowering her gaze.

"I dated a guy during sophomore year, and it didn't really end so well. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I've fueled all of my energy into beating Echo this summer, and maybe that's one of the reasons for what I'm about to say. I just... I don't know that I can be with someone as more than a friend right now," Octavia admitted, frowning. "I do like you, Raven, and the more I've thought about it, the more positive I am that my feelings for you are stronger than just friendship feelings. But I can't... I can't be with anyone right now."

Raven nodded, not looking particularly fazed by the question negatively or positively, and Octavia wondered what exactly the girl had been expecting her to say. Or, maybe, she had just convinced herself to expect anything and nothing all at once. "I get that," Raven assured her. "Thanks for telling me."

"Thanks for telling me that you liked me. I'd much rather be aware of that than not know why you're avoiding me."

"I'm not avoiding you anymore, O," Raven promised. "No matter how I feel about you, and whether or not you feel the same way, we're friends right now, and I'm not throwing that away. Even though you are pretty insane most of the time."

Octavia grinned. "Why thank you."

"Such a dork," Raven teased, smiling softly at the girl. "What were you doing in here, by the way?"

"Looking at pictures from last night," Octavia answered, surprising Raven as she hopped off of her bunk and joined Raven on Clarke's bed, her camera in hand. "I got one of Clarke and Lexa, look."

She pulled the picture up, and Raven gagged, feigning disgust, at a picture of the two girls with their lips locked. "Ew, adorableness overload."

"They are pretty cute," Octavia agreed, clicking to the next picture, which featured Clarke glaring at Octavia's camera, after the other picture had been taken. "I got an awful one of Bellamy, too." She clicked through a few more pictures and stopped on one where Bellamy was in mid conversation, his eyes almost looking in two different directions. Raven let out a loud laugh.

"Wow, you're one of those people who takes awful pictures of people, okay," Raven noted. Octavia suddenly raised the camera and snapped a picture of Raven's face, eliciting a gasp from her. "Oh my god! Delete it!"

Octavia shook her head, an evil grin on her face as she opened the picture, where Raven couldn't see it, and started laughing. "Oh my..." Her words trailed away as she laughed. "Holy shit!"

"Gimme the camera," Raven exclaimed, reaching for the device only to have Octavia pull it out of her reach, still laughing. "Octavia!"

"It's so funny, I can't delete it!" Octavia was basically cracking up at this point. "It looks like you're possessed!"

"O!" Raven whined, still trying to grab the camera.

"Um. What are you two doing on my bed?" the voice was Clarke's, of course, surprising both of the girls. Raven looked to the door of the cabin immediately, but Octavia was still laughing like crazy.

"She took a bad picture of me," Raven whined.

"Lemme see," Clarke said, standing next to her bunk as Octavia handed her the camera, while Raven crossed her arms and frowned. The blonde almost immediately broke out into a fit of laughter. "Oh my god!"

"Hey! I haven't even seen it, stop laughing!" Raven exclaimed, trying to grab the camera from Clarke and nearly falling out of the bed in the process.

"You don't wanna see it," Clarke said through her laughs, as Octavia finally calmed enough to take her camera back from the blonde. She gave in and turned it to face the screen toward Raven, who cringed.

"Oh my god, that's awful."

"You have to admit that it's pretty funny, though," Octavia insisted, giggling, before finally climbing off of Clarke's bed. "Sorry to take over your space, Clarke. I was showing Raven pics from last night."

"No problem," Clarke replied, rolling her eyes playfully. "I was just coming to grab my sketchbook. I think I'm going to go sit and draw a bit."

"Not going to go hang with Lexa?" Raven asked pointedly, quirking up an eyebrow.

Clarke let out a light sigh. "I kind of need some time by myself to think." She grabbed her sketchbook from her back, which was hanging on the back post of her bunk. "I'll see you guys later."

Clarke left her cabin and headed off into the woods, finding a random spot to settle herself and doodle while she thought. After the previous night, when Anya had made it a point to explicitly recount the incident between Lexa and Echo, Clarke felt her heart fall a good few feet further for Lexa. She'd barely even been aware that her feelings were so strong until that point.

She wasn't sure what to do about it, because of their age and their locations, and she needed to just think about it.

* * *

Lexa deflected the sword as it came at her, letting out a huff. "I just don't know if I should talk to her about it now , or like... later ."

"Are you kidding me?" Anya asked, blocking the counter attack that came from Lexa's sword. "Why would you wait until later? You'll end up like the bitch in those tragic love stories where, on the last day possible, you decide to bring up the future. Don't pretend like it's not there, Lexa."

"I'm not pretending," Lexa insisted, going for a second attack and mistaking her angle badly. She furrowed her eyebrows at herself. "I just don't know how to approach, I guess. Do I just flat out ask her what happens after summer, or do I offer something first?"

"What do you mean by offer something?" Anya asked, nearly getting Lexa but the other girl deflecting the slice just before it would've lightly hit its mark.

"Like... do I ask her to be official now? Or do I just tell her that I really like her and that I think we should be official... or do I just ask her about what she thinks should happen?"

"Well don't leave it all up to her," Anya said, and she would've rolled her eyes if she wasn't focused on not getting hit by Lexa's sword, "so I mean, I guess mention what you think before making her answer the question. Do the whole sappy thing where you express your side of it first... except, not the extreme version that gives her no choice. That's a bitch move."

Lexa groaned. "Anya, I've never been in a situation like this. I knew summer camp was a bad idea."

"Are you kidding me?" Anya snapped.

"Yeah, I know, it wasn't a bad idea," Lexa muttered, "that was the superficial side of things talking. Obviously, I'm glad I'm here. And for more reasons than just Clarke, obviously, but I do really like her. I just wish she didn't live in Caelum, and I wish she wasn't about to be a senior." She quickly stepped back, avoiding a swing by Anya, and then said, "Actually, scratch that. She can be a senior. I just wish that I was also about to be a senior. I just don't know how to handle this situation."

"You need to do whatever your heart," Anya said, suddenly taking the more aggressive side of the battle, "and also your brain," she went in for the final swing, "are telling you to do." Her sword tapped Lexa, and the brunette let out a puff of air, setting her sword down and collapsing on one of the benches.

"They're telling me different things, Anya."

"So make them compromise," Anya insisted. "Is Clarke worth it? Is she worth distance and the fact that she's graduating high school before you?"

Lexa sighed, running her fingers through her messy hair. "This sucks."

"Do you want my thoughts, really?" Lexa nodded insistently, sitting up straighter. "How much older than you am I?"

"A year."

"Where am I most likely going to college after this next year?"

Lexa frowned. "Sensus." It was a college about an hour and a half from Terra. Anya nodded, setting down her sword and straightening out her shirt. "Is that it?"

"Yep," Anya answered. "Let's go get lunch."

* * *

Clarke didn't show up to lunch, and Lexa asked Octavia where the girl was. The response was vague – in the woods somewhere, drawing. Lexa tried not to be concerned too much about it, but she was. If she didn't go to the dock or some other specific place, it was probably because she actually wanted to be alone, which meant that something was probably wrong.

When Lexa finished her lunch, she tried to distract herself by swimming, but she became increasingly aware of her mind being focused on Clarke. It took her about half an hour of swimming laps, trying not to think about the blonde, that she realized why she was. It was a combination of many factors.

Firstly, Clarke was probably worrying about something, and Lexa felt helpless without knowing what it was, and whether or not she could help.

Secondly, Lexa's feelings were at an all time high toward Clarke, and being apart from her in general felt awful.

Lastly, Lexa knew. She knew what she wanted, and she knew that she needed to Clarke about it before something happened – not that she expected anything to, really, but it was the idea that if she didn't say it now, she never would.

But she couldn't, because she had no idea where Clarke was.

It was late by the time that she did, when she was sitting at the dock after hours of swimming, trying to distract herself and make up for the slight lack of exercise that had started when she started spending a lot more time with Clarke. She heard rustling in the trees behind her as the blonde emerged from them, and Lexa looked over her shoulder with an expectant gaze.

"Hey," she said softly. "Where've you been all day?"

"Drawing," Clarke answered, making her way to sit next to Lexa. "Sorry, I was thinking about stuff."

"Don't apologize," Lexa insisted, smiling and shaking her head slightly. "You're allowed to be alone."

"I don't want to be alone," Clarke stated suddenly, her voice low and her blue eyes locking with Lexa's. The brunette felt her breath catch in her throat, and she had to swallow before being able to speak again.

"Okay."

Clarke looked away for a moment. "That's what I was thinking about all day."

"Being alone?" Lexa asked quietly.

"Sort of." The blonde looked up again, meeting Lexa's waiting gaze. "Have you thought at all about what happens after summer?" Lexa nodded. "What do you think about it?"

Lexa took in a deep breath, slightly surprised by the sudden turn of events that she had not been expecting. "I really like you, Clarke."

Blue eyes blinked. "But?"

"There is no but," Lexa corrected. "I really like you. Whether or not we're here at summer camp."

A small smile appeared on the blonde's face, along with a blush. "Same." Lexa watched Clarke's eyes, as the girl let out a light breath. "But the end of summer is about more than that."

Lexa nodded. "Because we're halfway through this summer camp, and then you're going back to Caelum."

"And you're going back to Terra."

"And you're graduating next year."

Clarke nodded, dropping her gaze again. Every time she did that, Lexa felt like sighing – it felt like she was losing a bright light. "So... what do we do?"

"I hate the way I feel when I'm not around you," Lexa murmured, still looking at Clarke's eyes, even if they weren't looking at her, "it feels awful. That's unavoidable, no matter what happens after this camp. But unlike at this place, in the real world, we have phones."

Clarke laughed lightly, finally looking back up. "That's true."

"I can't imagine how not talking to you at all would be better than talking to you every day, whether or not we're in the same place," Lexa reasoned quietly. "And we don't live hours apart, it takes an hour to drive from Terra to Caelum. It's really not that far, it's just effort."

"I don't mind the effort," Clarke said quickly, raising her eyebrows. "Do you?"

Lexa shook her head. "It'll be weird, though. We've lived basically next to each other for a month now, and we will for another month to come. Five minutes is a lot shorter than one hour."

"Only by fifty-five minutes," Clarke said cutely, batting her eyelashes at the brunette, who let out a light laugh.

"You're not wrong."

They were both quiet for a moment. "So. What do we do?" Clarke asked again.

"I'm down to try and do this for real, if you are."

Clarke was already nodding. "I am, Lexa. I really like you, I... yeah, I just... I feel more whole when I'm with you."

"So... would it be okay to then ask you to be my girlfriend?"

Clarke felt her lips spreading into a smile, and she nodded her head slowly. "Yes, it would be perfectly okay for you to ask that."

"Will you? Be my girlfriend?"

"Hmm..." Clarke acted as though she had to think about the answer, suddenly shifting her position so that she was on her hands and knees, crawling across the dock to Lexa. She pressed her lips against the brunette's firmly, and Lexa returned the kiss passionately. Pulling her lips away just barely, the blonde finally answered, "Yes, I will."


	15. Chapter 15

"Can you believe camp is halfway over?" Octavia groaned, leaning against one of the trees and looking out over the lake.

"It doesn't feel like it's been a month," Raven admitted. She was sitting on the ground, next to the rock where Clarke was seated. "It feels shorter, but at the same time, it also feels longer. Does that make sense?"

"It kind of just feels like forever," Clarke admitted, letting out a breath and looking at the setting sun across the lake. "I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of wish this wasn't going to end."

"Aw, Clarke is getting all sappy!" Raven teased, looking over her shoulder and up at the blonde, who rolled her eyes. "Is that why you went to be alone all day?"

Clarke let out a hum, before admitting, "No, that's not why I wanted to be alone. I was thinking about stuff... like, after camp. With me and Lexa."

"And?" Octavia asked curiously, looking away from the lake and turning to look at Clarke. "You guys are practically attached at the hip, so I can't imagine that you decided to call off whatever your thing is after the summer ends."

"Oh no, we didn't," Clarke agreed, a small smile appearing on her face. "We decided that we wouldn't do that. I don't know what I'm doing for college, but that's a year away at this point. Until then, I'm only going to be an hour away from Lexa. You too, O, we don't live that far from one another."

"I haven't even really thought about that," Octavia commented, tilting her head. "Both of you guys live in Caelum. Damn, that sucks."

"Did you not just hear what Clarke said? It's only an hour away," Raven reminded the younger girl, who nodded.

"I can't drive," she admitted.

"Well good for you, I can," Raven teased, rolling her eyes playfully, and Clarke nodded.

"I just don't think it's going to be so bad," she admitted. "Also, since we decided that we shouldn't end things... Lexa asked me to be her girlfriend."

"Ooh!" Octavia squealed.

Raven turned around to look at Clarke. "You said yes, right?"

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" Clarke asked, raising both of her eyebrows.

"Sometimes you are," Octavia reasoned, flashing the blonde a grin after receiving a glare. "Whatever, I'm happy for you. Looks like summer camp is turning out better than you thought it would be."

"Shut up," Clarke muttered, rolling her eyes and blushing. She was pretty sure that neither of her friends noticed the red on her cheeks, though, because it was getting dark out as the sun finally touched the lake.

They were quiet as they all turned back to watch the sun sink into the water.

* * *

"Sup, blondie?"

The seat next to Clarke was suddenly being occupied by Anya – who the blonde had only spoken to a handful of times when Lexa was around. "Hey, Anya," she replied, looking curiously at the other girl. "What's up?"

"Where do you wanna go to college?"

Clarke blinked. "Um, I don't know? I thought about taking a year off, actually, before I start college. I don't actually know what I want to do."

"So you're not applying anywhere this fall?"

"I don't know? Why?"

"Wow, you struck me as one of those people who would have your whole future put together. Guess you're just as lost as normal people," Anya commented. "Listen, I like you, Clarke. You're cool, and Lexa likes you. And I've known Lexa for a long time – literally since elementary school. And I've seen her fall in and out of relationships, and she really fucking likes you. So you better not screw her up. Got it?"

"Got it," Clarke replied, blinking and realizing that she'd just experienced the best friend talk in less than a minute.

"Cool. Also, your friend? Raven?"

"What about her?" Clarke asked, even more confused now as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Is she single?"

Clarke blinked. "Um... Yes?"

"Cool. See you around, blondie." And with that, Anya was up and out of the mess hall, leaving Clarke staring at her with her mouth agape. What had just happened?

"What are you staring at?" Octavia asked suddenly, pulling the blonde out of her daze.

Clarke raised an eyebrow. "Anya was just here talking to me," she replied, "and I think she likes Raven."

"She likes Raven?"

"She asked me if she was single, so I'm assuming so. Don't say anything about it to Raven, though, I don't wanna be that person..."

Octavia nodded, her face blank. "Sure." They sat quietly for a moment, both just eating their breakfast, until Raven finally joined them.

"What happened here? Did some awful thing happen that I missed?" Raven looked suspiciously between the two of them. "Hello, earth to weirdos?"

"Nothing," Clarke insisted, shaking her head.

Suddenly, a fourth person was sitting next to them – Harper. "Hey guys," she chirped. "Octavia, I thought you might want to know that I just saw your brother making out with Echo around the back of the mess hall."

Octavia's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Oh god, not this again," Clarke muttered. "I thought this shit was over when we all ended up forced to sleep in tents for a weekend?"

"Don't act like you didn't love getting those tents, Clarke," Raven teased, grinning suggestively at the blonde, who flushed a dark red and went back to eating her food. Meanwhile, Octavia was seething.

"I'm going to go talk to them."

As she started to get up, Clarke and Raven both exclaimed, "Octavia!" She looked back at them, and Clarke continued, "Look, if you're going to talk to them about it, don't do it after barging up on them together. Talk to Bellamy about it privately, later. It's really not your business."

"It is my business! Bellamy is my brother, and Echo is a bitch – did everyone somehow forget Monday? When she was bashing you and Lexa?"

"Clarke is right, Octavia," Raven insisted. "You can't do that. You're just going to cause more problems."

The brunette's forehead creased, and then she let out a puff of air, giving in and sitting back down. "Fine." Harper suddenly sighed, disappointed.

"I was hoping for way more drama."

* * *

"Bellamy Blake!" Octavia exclaimed, storming down into the lake beach area, where Echo was nowhere to be seen, but where their usual group of people to hangout with were sitting around and talking amicably. Leave it to Octavia to interrupt that.

Clarke sighed – she'd known that this was going to happen at some point or another. The younger girl had disappeared after lunch, and Raven and Clarke had taken a walk around camp before joining their friends down at the lake. "What the fuck did I do now?" Bellamy grumbled.

"More like who," Clarke offered, giving Bellamy a pointed look, and realization dawned on his expression.

"Octavia, calm down," he said firmly, as his sister finally reached them.

"Calm down? I suspected that you were sleeping with her, but after my whole pod got thrown into tents, I let it die down. I assumed you did too, but then I hear that you're still hooking up with her?" Octavia was not at all trying to be quiet, and Clarke pursed her lips.

"Octavia, this isn't really what I meant when I said privately."

Octavia ignored her comment and crossed her arms, facing her brother head on. "Well?"

"Her whole personality isn't defined by the way she treats you, Octavia. And frankly, she'd probably treat you better if you weren't so set on seeing her as an enemy!" Bellamy exclaimed, crossing his arms defensively. "I'm not going to apologize for liking her, but I am sorry that you're too narrow minded to imagine that she might actually be more than what you think she is."

Before Octavia could say anything else, Bellamy left the group and started back up toward camp. His sister was following him almost instantly, and she followed him all the way up to the camp entrance.

"Well... hopefully whatever conversation they have up there is a little more civilized," Harper muttered, her eyebrows raised.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Didn't you want more drama, Harper?"

"Sure, but I don't want her to murder someone!"

Clarke tuned the conversation out as her gaze suddenly caught on Lexa, her girlfriend, and Anya standing on the edge of the lake across the beach area. The latter was wading out into the water, and Lexa had her arms crossed, calling something out to her friend. Clarke couldn't hear what exactly was being said.

"What are you staring at, Clarke?" Monty asked, drawing the blonde's attention away from Lexa.

"I think the better question is who is she staring at," Raven answered, eyeing Lexa. The whole group turned their heads, and Clarke hissed.

"Stop," she said. "I'll see you guys later."

She left the circle of friends and started off to Lexa. She heard Raven snicker, but she ignored the girl. Instead, she bit her lower lip and tread silently across the ground. As she got closer, she could hear was Lexa was calling to Anya.

"I didn't wear my bikini for a reason, Anya, I don't feel like swimming!" she called.

Clarke was almost completely sure that Anya had seen her sneaking up on Lexa by now, but the girl showed no indication, and Clarke appreciated it. Once she was behind the brunette, she abruptly started tickling her sides, and Lexa let out a squeal, jumping away, stumbling, and falling into the shallow water.

Anya was wailing with laughter, and Clarke was laughing loudly as well, and Lexa sat in the water, fully clothed, with her mouth hanging open. "Clarke!"

"Oh my god," Clarke barely managed to say through her laughter.

"I'm fully dressed!"

Clarke's laughter died down a little and she raised her eyebrows at her girlfriend, "How was I supposed to know you were gonna fall?"

Lexa narrowed her eyes. "Well, if I'm stuck down here, you're coming with me." She reached up and grabbed Clarke's hands before the blonde could back away, pulling her down into the water.

It was shallow, and she ended up with just the lower part of her legs in the water. She grinned widely at the brunette, who stuck her tongue out in response. "What a dork," Clarke teased, before leaning forward and grabbing Lexa's lips in a kiss.

"Do you guys ever stop being so fucking cute?" Anya shouted. "Please, stop, now."

Lexa laughed against Clarke's lips, and the blonde pulled away reluctantly. She stood up, the water dripping off of her bare legs and her shoes – she was wearing shorts and they hadn't gotten wet. Lexa, as she stood up, was clearly less fortunate – her legs and her whole ass was wet, as well as part of her back. Clarke tried not to laugh.

"Are you really going to make me swim all by myself?" Anya called, drawing Lexa's attention.

"I swam for hours yesterday, Anya, I'm exhausted."

"Ugh, fine. Go be sickeningly adorable somewhere else."

Lexa didn't argue, grabbing Clarke's hand and pulling her away from the water. "She sounds like Raven when she says stuff like that," Clarke said. As she did, she recalled Anya's brief conversation with her earlier in the day – and the weird question about whether or not Raven was single. "Also, does Anya like Raven?"

"She's only talked to Raven like once, hasn't she?" Lexa asked, giving Clarke a confused look as they made their way back up to camp. "She hasn't said anything. Why?"

"She asked me this morning if Raven's single or not."

Lexa raised an eyebrow. "I'll ask her about it. Right now, though, I need to change." She pretended to glare at Clarke, but the blonde just laughed.

"You literally pulled me into the water fully clothed like a week ago, so chill," Clarke reminded the brunette, a smile stuck on her face. They turned into the Pod Six area. "Ooh, the last time I was here I was totally wrecking your cabin. I feel like I'm in enemy territory."

"Am I your enemy?" Lexa asked, looking over her shoulder at the blonde.

"Oh, obviously."

"Also it literally looks exactly the same as your pod."

"I was kidding," Clarke replied, pouting at the brunette, who just laughing and shook her head. She followed Lexa into the red cabin. Lexa released her hand to go to her bunk, which was apparently the first bottom one on the right, and grabbed change of clothes.

"I'll just be a second!"

She disappeared into the bathroom in the back, and Clarke leaned on the door frame. Her gaze traveled around the room, looking at the different bunks. It did look just like her own cabin. The back of the door, though, had smudged and scrubbed paint stains on it – from the frog prank.

"What are you doing here?" a voice snapped, drawing Clarke's gaze to the front porch area of the cabin. It was Echo, her eyes narrowed.

"Waiting for Lexa," Clarke answered quietly. "She's changing."

Echo didn't say anything, making her way past the blonde and heading to her own bed. "I just ran into your ring leader arguing with her brother about me."

"She's kind of intense," Clarke justified. "She's pretty upset. I don't really see the harm."

Echo looked back at Clarke suspiciously. "Are you being nice to me?"

"I don't have to be, considering that you were calling me a bitch two days ago," Clarke muttered, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. The bathroom door opened then, revealing Lexa, who eyed Echo warily.

"Let's go," Lexa offered, walking across to the front of the cabin and taking Clarke's hand, pulling her out of the building. When they were a bit away from the area, Lexa questioned, "I heard you guys talking – what was she talking about Octavia and Bellamy?"

"Harper saw Bellamy and Echo kissing this morning and Octavia flipped shit," Clarke answered, rolling her eyes. "She'll get over it, though. He's her brother, and I'm pretty sure that he can convince her to pipe down a bit."

"Hopefully. I feel like she's ruining her summer," Lexa commented.

Clarke shrugged. "I don't know, I mean she's kind of the person who thrives with the drama, I think. That's why she creates it so often."

"Do you thrive in drama?"

"Uh, no," Clarke answered, but she knew that Lexa had just been joking, because they both knew that neither of them were the drama type. "I'm much more about the real side of things. Drama always feels fake. Like, it's always something that's been blown out of proportion and made unreal. You know?"

"I've never thought about it like that," Lexa admitted. Her thumb was stroking over the back of Clarke's hand. "But I see what you mean."

Clarke finally realized that they were heading toward the dock – she hadn't noticed before, because she'd been distracted by talking to Lexa. She smiled slightly. "That's why I like you. You're so real that it's unreal."

Lexa let out a laugh. "What does that mean?"

"Who knows?" Clarke replied, leaning into the brunette a bit as they walked. "The point is, I like you."

"I like you, too, Clarke."


	16. Chapter 16

"Have you seen Octavia?" the question came as soon as Raven was sitting across from Clarke. It was Friday, at breakfast, and Clarke tilted her head.

"No, she wasn't in the cabin when I got up. Figured that she got up early to do something," Clarke replied. Octavia had been quiet since Wednesday after her argument with her brother. She hadn't brought up Echo or Bellamy at all, and on Thursday, she'd gotten even quieter, seeming to get lost in her thoughts more than once.

Clarke wasn't exactly sure that she knew why, but she had a good idea of a reason, because Thursday morning was when Clarke had playfully told Raven that she thought Anya had a crush on her.

Raven had widened her eyes and admitted, "Well, I mean... she's obviously not bad looking, but I don't even know her." They'd joked about it a little bit, and Octavia had said nothing.

Neither girl had told Clarke much about the conversation that they had obviously had in Clarke and Octavia's cabin on Tuesday, but it had clearly helped things. However, it seemed like the two of them were still just friends, which was honestly what the blonde had expected. She just couldn't understand why Octavia seemed upset about the thing with Anya if she didn't return Raven's feelings.

If Raven noticed that that particular conversation had silenced Octavia a bit, she hadn't made any indication of it. Clarke had decided not to mention it at all to either of them, but she had a feeling that Octavia was feeling more than she had initially thought she would.

"Well, I need to talk to her," Raven grumbled, grudgingly beginning to eat her breakfast.

"What about?" Clarke questioned, quirking up an eyebrow.

The brunette shrugged. "She didn't talk to me very much yesterday. It felt like she was avoiding me. I didn't think she was mad at me earlier this week, so I don't get it. Did she say anything to you?" Clarke shook her head honestly, and Raven let out a sigh. "I'll ask her next time I see her."

Suddenly, one of the camp coordinators was speaking into a microphone, drawing the attention of everyone in the mess hall – which was most of the camp at this point, but not the early risers or the late risers. "Good morning, campers! So, as you know, we've reached the halfway point of Camp Unite, and we have three more competitions until we declare the winner of this year's Camp Unite! And then, of course, we'll have a big celebration. But to prepare for the end of the camp, each pod is getting a banner – and you guys get to create it. Each pod can pick up to five people to design and paint it. All six of the banners have just been laid out in the main area of each pod, in between the cabins. There are plenty of supplies along with it. The banners will need to be completed over the next week. Have a great day!"

Raven gave Clarke a curious look. "I assume you're taking charge of that, Miss Artist?"

"I guess," Clarke agreed, shrugging. "I don't know how many other people would want to sit around painting a banner. I definitely don't mind."

* * *

An hour later found Clarke sitting on the dirt in front of the Pod One cabins, sketching the beginning of the design for the banner. She'd gone to where it was laying right after breakfast, and found a couple other people interested in the painting part. Not the design part, of course, they'd all claimed to be 'not that good at art'. Clarke didn't really mind the task, though, because it was relaxing.

She didn't actually have the full design planned in her head yet, so she was working on the most basic part of the outline – the big 'POD ONE'.

The banner was pretty big, so she was trying with the utmost care to keep her lettering in the center, so that it didn't up obviously misplaced. Her concentration caused her to not notice as someone was suddenly sitting next to her in the dirt.

She only noticed when Lexa's voice said, "I figured you'd be over here doing this." Clarke looked up, smiling when she met Lexa's eyes.

"Yeah, no one else wanted to actually design this thing, so I figured why not? I like doing it, anyway."

"Your focused face is actually adorable – even more cute than the face you make when you try to glare at someone," Lexa commented, and Clarke tilted her head.

"Are you saying that I can't glare?"

Lexa nodded. "You try, but it's not at all intimidating. It's just extremely cute, really."

"I can be intimidating." Clarke's forehead creased as she furrowed her eyebrows a bit.

"Sure you can, babe," Lexa teased, grinning and then placing a soft kiss on Clarke's cheek – which had flushed immediately after hearing the endearment. "I don't wanna distract you from drawing."

"I want you to distract me from drawing," Clarke countered, smiling shyly at Lexa, who got the message and grabbed Clarke's lips in a deep kiss. The blonde quickly took control of it, though, and Lexa definitely didn't seem to mind. It lasted until they needed to breathe, and when they did, Clarke murmured, "Where's a tent when you need one?"

"Mm, is someone feeling horny?" Lexa asked, chuckling lightly.

"Maybe," Clarke replied, pouting at her girlfriend.

* * *

When it came time for lunch, Clarke decided that since she had a week to finish the banner – and once the design was done, she wouldn't be doing it all herself – she would stop for the day. Anya had swooped in and stolen Lexa from her earlier, so she washed her hands in the cabin bathroom and then made her way to the mess hall by herself.

She ended up finding Raven, looking quite unhappy. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I finally saw Octavia and tried to talk to her, but she basically booked it before I could get my question out. I can't think of why she would be avoiding me, and it's actually starting to really bother me. Did I do something wrong, do you think?" Raven mumbled. Her eyes were dull, and she looked considerably more upset than she had earlier.

"I don't think you did anything, Raven. Maybe she's just in a weird place right now, or something. I mean, you had to take a break from talking to her for a while. And you know Octavia, her head goes any and everywhere."

Raven nodded. "I guess. How's the banner going? Did someone agree to help you?"

"Oh yeah, once the whole thing is drawn out," Clarke replied, rolling her eyes slightly. "Painting it will take a while though, so I guess it's good that I'll have multiple people. I hope everyone likes the design I'm coming up with, though, because I'm the only one contributing toward it."

"Hey," a voice interrupted them, as Echo suddenly stopped by their table, "do either of you know where Octavia is?"

Clarke blinked at the girl. "No."

"I need to talk to her."

"Get in line," Raven muttered, rolling her eyes. "That girl gets lost easier than a bobby pin does."

"Well, do you think she's coming to lunch?" Echo seemed to be getting annoyed now.

"What do you need to talk to her about?" Clarke asked, furrowing her eyebrows. What could be important enough that Echo was so concerned about talking to Octavia?

Echo let out an annoyed huff, suddenly sitting down next to Raven, who scooted away a couple of inches inconspicuously, since there hadn't really been room for another person at the edge of the table. "Look, I know that you both think I'm some awful human being with no heart, and sometimes that might be true. But as crazy as it might seem to your tiny brains, I like Bellamy, and apparently anything with him requires me to, as he said, 'get along' with Octavia. So I need to talk to her."

"I have a feeling that she's going to be MIA for most of the day," Clarke admitted, "she really hasn't been in the talking mood since Wednesday. I think she has other things on her mind."

"What do you think she's thinking about?" Raven demanded. "You keep sounding like you know more than you're saying."

"I swear that I haven't talked to her at all, Raven," Clarke insisted, "I just have a feeling. I mean, when does Octavia choose to not talk? It has to be some major reason, right?"

"Whatever. I'll just talk to her when she climbs out of her hiding spot." Echo stood back up, giving both of the two girls a quick, undecipherable look, and then walked off.

"Do you swear that you don't know why Octavia isn't talking to me?" Raven asked, narrowing her eyes. Before Clarke answer with a yes, two people were suddenly taking a seat at their table – Anya by Raven, and Lexa by Clarke.

"Hey," Lexa chimed happily. "Anya wouldn't let me come sit by you unless she came too."

"No objections," Clarke said, smiling at her girlfriend and leaning in to steal a quick kiss.

"We didn't interrupt anything, did we?" Anya asked, probably realizing that Raven had said something to Clarke just before they'd sat down.

"Just another awesome conversation about why Octavia does what she does," Raven muttered, rolling her eyes. "I just don't get it at all. I talk to her on Tuesday – she's fine. We're laughing, talking, over the awkward period. A day later, things are alright, and then Thursday and today? Nothing."

Clarke bit down on the inside of her lower lip, because she was almost sure that Octavia was partially upset about the discussion about Anya liking Raven, and she was reaching the point of wanting to tell Raven that theory, but now Anya was sitting right next to her.

Speak of the devil, Anya hummed and said, "Drama. Lame."

"Yeah, well, that's all Octavia knows," Raven stated.

"At least you have interesting friends," Anya commented, "Lexa hates drama, so she's boring as fuck."

"Hey!" Lexa exclaimed, glaring at her best friend.

"I don't think you're boring," Clarke piped in cheekily, earning a grin from her girlfriend, and an eye roll from Anya.

"Disgusting."

"I agree," Raven said, both of them now feigning disgust as Clarke stole another kiss from her girlfriend. Their friends' negativity, fake or real, was none of her concern if she had Lexa next to her.

"You were right," Lexa commented, "they do sound a lot alike when they say stuff like that." Clarke nodded pointedly.

"That's because we both know what we're talking about, because we have to watch you two be sickeningly adorable."

Clarke shrugged. "Sounds like it's your fault. You could be sitting anywhere else."

"Like with Echo?" Anya said, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, wait a second," Raven interrupted, lowering her voice, "what's up with Echo? She's actually being nice now?"

"I believe what she said," Clarke admitted.

Lexa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What did she say?"

"She was looking for Octavia, and she said it was because she likes Bellamy and he told her that she needs to get along with Octavia to be with him," Clarke explained briefly.

"Bellamy can't just expect her to start loving Octavia, though," Raven insisted, crossing her arms. "Octavia holds a grudge like nobody's business, and there's no way that Echo would give in before Octavia apologizes to her."

"You'd be surprised," Anya offered up. "I've seen both Octavia and Echo around for along time, and both of them have changed a lot over the years – they used to be at least half decent toward one another. When they first met they were fine, but then some competitive drama started up. It didn't get all too bad until Camp Unite, though."

"Camp Unite-Or-Die," Lexa corrected, raising her eyebrows.

Anya gave Lexa a pointed look. "You made that joke a month ago."

"Well, it's even more relevant now. Literally, this place feels like a war zone half of the time."

"She's not wrong," Clarke agreed.

"Please, you have to say stuff like that if you wanna get sex," Raven teased suddenly, causing Clarke to choke on nothing.

"Raven!" she exclaimed, but Lexa was laughing loudly next to her. Leave it to Lexa to brush off a comment like that and leave Clarke as the one flushing with embarrassment. Perhaps that was her own fault, though.

Anya was also laughing, and Raven was grinning proudly. "You know, I think you and I could get along pretty great, Raven." Raven flashed Anya a smile, which the other girl returned. "Do you both live in Caelum?"

"Yep," Clarke answered, "but we didn't know each other before camp. Most of the people I tend to hang out with at school are like me – they hate the outdoors. They all have nicer parents than I do, though." The last part was meant as a joke, but she couldn't help but feel a bit seriously about it. She hadn't really thought of her parents very much, not since she'd started hanging out with Lexa, but now it was suddenly dawning on her.

What would her parents think when she came back with even more passion to become an artist, and also a sort of long distance girlfriend? Her mother would probably be pissed, and her dad wouldn't be mad, but he might be disappointed that her mom would be mad. It was weird sometimes, how their relationship worked. Her dad loved her no matter what, Clarke knew that, but sometimes he would side with her mom almost like it was his duty to do so. Sometimes that bothered the hell out of Clarke.

"Earth to Clarke," Raven said, snapping in front of her face suddenly. "Do you want to or not?"

"Want to what?" Clarke asked, realizing that she'd zoned out and missed a question.

"Go swimming," Lexa answered, nudging her and giving her a soft smile.

Clarke nodded, a smile appearing on her face as well as she pushed any thought of her parents far into the back of her thoughts. "Sure, but I need to change first."


	17. Chapter 17

Raven tried not to feel awkward and alone as she made her way down to the lake the next day. Another day had passed without her talking to Octavia, and it was starting to really get to her. Clarke was working on the design for their banner, and Raven had tried to hang out with her while she drew, but the girl got so focused that it was either hang out or draw, not both.

She figured that at least some of her friends – Jasper or Monty or Harper or someone – would be down by the lake, though, so she'd opted to look there for something to do. The downside was that there was actually another mini camp event, like the chess competition, going on the other side of camp. They were doing a fencing competition, probably because the camp administrators had noticed that a lot of people seemed to enjoy fencing. That meant that there were far less people just hanging around to talk to.

When she reached the lake, she didn't see anyone that she recognized right off of the bat, but then her eyes traveled up to the rock, nestled in the corner of the beach area next to some trees, where she and Clarke liked to sit sometimes. Sitting prettily on it and looking down at the rock, where her fingers were tracing patterns along it, was Octavia. Raven really wasn't sure where the girl had been over the past few days – hiding off somewhere probably, in a spot she'd found in the previous years or something.

Raven hesitated before going over, but then she stood tall and walked over. "Hey."

Octavia looked up. "Hey."

"Where've you been?" She leaned against one of the trees next to the rock.

"Anywhere," Octavia muttered. "I haven't been having the greatest few days. I'm sorry."

Raven looked carefully at the younger girl, trying to figure out what was okay for her to ask, and what was better left unmentioned. "Echo was looking for you yesterday, to talk to you about Bellamy."

"I'm sure she'll talk to me when she sees me," Octavia said, sounding uncaring about the topic. Perhaps that's what she had disappeared to think about – Bellamy and Echo. Somehow, though, Raven was pretty sure that there was more to it. "How have you been?"

"Fine." Raven crossed her arms over her chest, aware that she was no longer going to be able to hold in her question. "So, I know you were kind of avoiding everyone, but you were avoiding me too, and don't even deny it."

"I was," Octavia confirmed, slightly surprising Raven by her bluntness.

"Why?"

Octavia let out a long sigh. "I was upset about Anya liking you."

"Wait, what? She doesn't like me."

"Yeah, she does. She asked Clarke if you were single," Octavia argued, shaking her head. "What, did you think Clarke was joking when she mentioned it on Thursday?"

"Uh, yeah, I did," Raven answered, furrowing her eyebrows. "That's why I made it into a joke. I don't like Anya, Octavia. And why would you care if Anya liked me, anyway?"

Octavia was silent, looking back down at her hands.

"Look, Octavia. You told me that you like me as more than a friend, but that you don't want to do anything about it. And I don't know if you realize this, but at the end of this camp, we're going home to two different places. We're not like Clarke and Lexa, O, we'll probably talk a lot, but we're not going to have a major reason to meet up and stuff during the busy year. I'm going to be doing college apps, you're going to be trudging through junior year. The fact is, if you want this to go anywhere, you need to decide now, because if we don't do anything about the way we feel, it'll go away. That's what happens." Raven took in a deep breath, surprised that she had said any of that, let alone all of it.

"I know," Octavia murmured, her voice shaky. "I don't know what I want to do, Raven. I made a mistake this summer." Raven opened her mouth to say something, but then she clamped it shut, empty of words now. "I came to this camp with the determination to win, and now I've ruined so many things. I wouldn't be surprised if Clarke hated me by now, and I'm pretty sure my own brother hates me. I screwed up."

Raven breathed a shaky breath. "The summer isn't over, Octavia. You took three days to regret how you've handled the summer, and even though I can't really say that it's entirely your fault that you came at this summer head on, it's probably a good thing that you took that time. That being said, you have another three and a half weeks to change things. Just think about it. I'll be around when you wanna talk."

Raven turned around, walking back up to camp, and Octavia looked up, watching her with careful eyes. Raven was right, of course. They had three fulls weeks and then part of a week left of camp, it wasn't too late to switch gears.

But she was ashamed, and fairly embarrassed, about the way she'd acted. It was a new feeling for her.

After about another twenty minutes of just sitting there and thinking, Octavia finally got up off of the rock and started back up to camp. She had been in and out of the actual camp grounds, grabbing food right before the mess hall would close up after meal, or in the case of breakfast, right away so that she could disappear. She had sneaked an early shower on Thursday morning, but she hadn't had time for one the previous day, and now she definitely wanted one.

Her path was intercepted, though, by just the person that she didn't want to see.

"Octavia," Echo called, stopping the younger girl.

"What?"

"I need to talk to you."

She let out a sigh. "So I heard. You're not over at the fencing competition watching your cabin mate – Lexa of course – crush all of your enemies?"

"I got bored – a bunch of fifteen year old people from Pod Two are fighting right now, and it's not as exciting. Plus, I need to talk to you, like I said," Echo stated firmly. "Look, I know that you don't like me, and frankly, I don't like you either. But the fact is that I actually like your brother. And I know that you probably don't believe me, because you think I'm incapable of feelings, but-"

"I don't think that," Octavia interrupted, figuring that now was as good a time as any to try and fix her mistakes. "But I am kind of confused. He was flirting with you and Lexa shamelessly at the beginning of the year, as per usual, and you shot him down – as per usual."

Echo glanced away for a moment. "It's complicated. We started talking. He's not half bad as far as guys go."

Octavia cleared her throat. "Right, so. Is that what you wanted to say?" Echo nodded, turning on her heel and starting to walk off. She still looked pretty tense, and Octavia knew that the girl most definitely didn't like her, no matter what she would say for Bellamy's sake. And Octavia definitely didn't like Echo.

So it was a bit weird when she found herself taking a step forward and calling out.

"Wait, Echo."

The girl froze, looking over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"I... I'm sorry. For wrecking your cabin and putting a frog in your bed. And for calling you out about Bellamy. And for... well, you get the idea. I guess I just go so caught up in the competitive shit that I didn't think about the fact that I'm getting older, and I should probably stop acting like a kid sometimes," Octavia admitted, feeling her heart clench as she opened herself to embarrassment. "And this is your last summer here. So I'm sorry for making it so shit."

Echo cleared her throat awkwardly, turning around completely now to face Octavia. "Are you for real?" She honestly sounded confused and skeptical – and Octavia didn't really blame her.

"This is the first year that I've made such good friends here, and the more caught up in the drama I get, the more I push them away. I finally have things to lose this summer, and I don't want to lose any of it. That's not to say that we can spontaneously become friends, because I still don'tparticularly like you. But. I'm sorry." Octavia bit the inside of her lip, bracing herself for Echo bursting into laughter.

She didn't, though. Instead, she admitted, "It's not all your fault. I've done just as much shit over the years to perpetuate you hating me."

Octavia raised her eyebrows, surprised at the sincerity. "Wait, are you for real?" Echo looked the brunette up and down.

"You're not the only one who is connecting with people this summer. Maybe I'm also realizing that I should start growing up," Echo stated. "See you around, Octavia." With that, the girl turned around and finally headed off.

Surprisingly, Octavia didn't feel embarrassed. She felt a sense of calm coming over her mind – and she knew that she had a list of people to apologize to. Staring with her friends.

* * *

Clarke was sitting alone in front of the Pod One cabins, working on the design for the banner, which was coming to her piece by piece. She was trying to incorporate every activity that she knew the people in the pod were a part of. She didn't know all of them, but just because not all of them had been the center of some sort of drama didn't mean that the should be ignored.

She was starting with the activities that she knew of – mostly from Raven and Octavia and her cabin members. During dinner that night, she might end up asking around for ideas to incorporate beyond that. It was a big enough banner, anyway.

Normally, she might mind that she was sitting all alone, but the art was keeping her occupied. Plus, she knew that Lexa was at the fencing tournament with Anya and most of the camp. Raven was probably over there as well.

"Hey," a voice said suddenly, pulling Clarke out of her concentration and drawing her gaze to where Octavia now stood a few feet away. "Looks good so far."

"Thanks," Clarke replied. "You out of hiding?"

Octavia nodded, taking a seat on the other side of the banner. "Do you need any help?"

"Not yet. I'm doing the sketch, then anyone can help paint it," Clarke replied. "Unless you want to sketch something."

"I'm not very good," Octavia said.

Clarke gave her half smile. "Well, I'm going over every sketch twice, because the first one is just rough. So you can grab a pencil and trace my lines if you want." Octavia nodded, grabbing one of the unused pencils an started to trace one of the light sketches as Clarke started a new section.

"So," the brunette started, "I talked to Raven."

"Yeah?"

"Mmhmm. I don't think she's mad at me, but she should be. I'm not being fair," Octavia muttered. Clarke looked over at her, but the girl's dark eyes were focused on the lines she was drawing intently. "I told her that I couldn't be in a relationship, no matter how I feel about her. And then I got stupidly jealous that someone else liked her. And now, I still can't even tell her if I want to be with her or not. I don't feel ready. But she's right – if we don't do it, the feelings will go away."

"If they go away," Clarke reasoned, "then maybe they weren't meant to be. You shouldn't do something if you're not ready for it. Once your ready, if you still have feelings for her and she has them for you, then maybe you two were meant to get together. It's not necessarily now or never."

Octavia sighed. "It feels like it is. You're all graduating high school next year. You won't be back here."

"Yeah," Clarke murmured. "That doesn't mean all that much, though, O. You know that."

They were silent for the next few minutes, both working diligently on their task at hand. The next time that Octavia did talk, she informed Clarke, "You know that guy you were with for part of Capture the Flag? Kyle? He's in JROTC, if you wanna include that somewhere on here."

"I want to include everything," Clarke said, "I just don't know everyone. I thought about asking people tonight at dinner or something."

"I'll help you," Octavia offered. They were quiet again as Clarke gently detailed the sketchbook she was drawing. She knew that some of the detail might be loss once people were painting, but she was hoping to be able to paint a lot of the small details and make it look as nice as possible, and she had a feeling that people wouldn't object to it. "I also talked to Echo."

"Oh yeah, she was looking for you yesterday," Clarke recalled.

"Yeah, she wanted to talk to me about Bellamy. We kind of came to an understanding," Octavia admitted. "I apologized to her, and she apologized to me. We both realized that we need to grow up if we want to keep the people we care about. Who am I to tell her that she can't like my brother just because there's some bad history between the two of us?"

"I'm proud of you, Octavia," Clarke stated, looking to her friend with a soft smile.

Octavia returned the smile, and then took in a slightly shaky breath. "I need to apologize to you, Clarke. I'm really glad to have met you this summer, and I feel like I basically wasted half of it. I lost time to hang out with you. And I know that you spend a lot of time with Lexa anyway, but still. You were always with Raven when I was off doing something crazy, and I could've been hanging out with you two. I'm really sorry."

"Thanks for apologizing, Octavia. Honestly, the competitiveness and stuff is part of your charm, but you did take it a bit far," Clarke admitted. "It's okay, though, really."

"Thanks, Clarke. I'm kind of nervous about talking to everyone who I need to apologize to. I have to talk to Bellamy, and Raven again. Probably also just the whole group of people we hang out with. Maybe all of Pod One and Pod Six. To be honest, I should just apologize to the whole fucking camp," she muttered.

"Stop beating yourself up so much. We all make mistakes, O, and it's not like yours cost anyone's lives or anything," Clarke reminded her friend playfully, feeling proud of herself when a small smile appeared on her face. "You feeling up to lunch? That tournament is going to keep lots of people occupied, so I bet we'll get first dibs on food."

"Sounds good to me, but let me shower real quickly first and we can head over."

* * *

That night, Octavia helped Clarke to ask around the pod about what activities people were involved in, and they made a list that would easily fit onto the banner. They made a deal to work on it together all throughout Sunday, so that they could start the long process of painting after the competition on Monday and finish the banner on time by Friday.

After that, though, Octavia caught Raven as she walked back to her cabin.

"Raven, can I talk to you?"

The older girl nodded, letting Octavia pull her a little away from the stream of people heading from the mess hall back to the pods. "What's up? Did you think about what I-"

Her words were suddenly cut off when Octavia smashed her lips against hers in a searing kiss. Raven, once she got over her shock, kissed the girl back fervently. It was a desperate kiss, and Octavia wanted it to tell Raven that she was sorry.

When she finally pulled her lips away from her friend's, she took in a shaky breath. "I can't promise you anything, Raven, because I'm not perfect and I'm not ready for promises. But I really like you, and yeah, it makes me upset when I think about Anya liking you. I can't help it. And when this summer ends, I don't want us to disconnect and drift apart. I don't know what I'll be able to promise you, but I just... want a chance? Does any of that make sense?"

Raven's eyes were still slightly widened in surprise, but she was nodding. "It makes enough sense," she agreed, before leaning in and kissing Octavia again greedily.

There was a chance, and that was enough for both of them.


	18. Chapter 18

"We're screwed," Clarke told her friends as they left the mess hall on Monday morning. The next competition had just been announced, and they had an hour before it started. As Pod One, they were to go first. And what was the competition? A swim relay.

"We're not," Octavia argued. "There are three parts of the relay, right? So we just divide the whole pod up into three groups, and whoever is the fastest gets to the next checkpoint first. That way we don't have to pick one person off of how good they think they are at swimming. That's usually what everyone does."

"Okay, but we're still screwed. We made that list of people's activities yesterday, O, and how many swimmers did we have? One," Clarke reminded the younger girl, shaking her head. "We're screwed.

"Whatever, Clarke," Raven argued, waving her hand at the blonde, "stop being so negative. Maybe someone in our pod will surprise you."

Clarke raised her eyebrows. "Whatever, just let me take the first stretch so I can be done early, please."

It took almost a full hour before their whole pod actually got down to the lake, because they'd all needed to change into swimwear at the same time, which was rarely an issue during a normal day.

As they made their way down to the water, Clarke suddenly felt a hand slip into hers and she turned her head to face her girlfriend. "Oh god, please don't tell me that you're here to watch me fail at swimming."

Lexa grinned. "Okay, I won't tell you then."

"Ugh," Clarke grumbled. "Swimming is not my thing. So not fair."

Lexa placed a quick, soft kiss on the blonde's lips. "Good luck," she said, an amused smile on her face, before releasing Clarke's hands and going off to where a bunch of people from other pods were hanging around.

The relay was relatively simple. The first stretch started near the left side of the beach area of the lake, and time started when everyone started swimming out to where a rowboat was floating. Once the first swimmers were there, the swimmers at the second stretch – who were going to be brought out there by other boats – were allowed to start swimming. They had to make sort of an arc shape around a buoy and then to another rowboat that was across the lake at the same distance from the shore as the first boat. There, the last swimmers would finish the relay by making it back. When the first person got back, the time would be stopped and that would be the time for the pod.

Whoever had the shortest time after every pod had gone would win the challenge.

Clarke had strong feeling that it was not going to be Pod One.

After the two groups of people for the last two stretches were boated out and were relaxing out in the water waiting for their turn to go, Clarke and everyone else swimming the first stretch waded into the lake.

The camp administrator was in the water as well, at the point at which they would start swimming from. He had a timer in one hand and a bullhorn in the other. "Alright, good luck you guys. On your mark... get set... go!"

Clarke wasn't really surprised that she wasn't the slowest swimmer out of the group, but she was definitely not the fastest either. She wasn't used to swimming enough to the point that she knew the "proper" way to swim fast.

It took the fastest person in the group about two minutes to reach the boat, and once the whistle from the administrator indicated that the next group could go, Clarke immediately relaxed and started swimming back to shore, along with everyone else. She was already tired of the water.

As she waded back up onto the beach area, she saw Lexa smirking at her. "Did you at least make it halfway?"

"I don't fucking know," Clarke answered, laughing, "I'm already tired. I need another meal now."

"Oh please, you've swam that far before – I know because I was with you," Lexa reminded her.

"Yeah, but it's early," Clarke whined, pouting at her girlfriend. "Plus, I was trying harder this time, so it was more tiring."

"That's weird, because you weren't going any faster," Lexa teased, and Clarke just swatted her hand at her.

"Stop being mean."

Lexa grinned widely at the blonde, snatching her hand in the air and suddenly pulling Clarke into a kiss. When she pulled away a few moments later, she murmured, "Are you going to spend all day doing that banner again?"

"The design isn't even finished and the whole thing needs to be done by Friday," Clarke reminded Lexa, though a frown appeared on her face. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Lexa said with a sigh, "but you owe me."

The blonde smiled lightly. "Noted." She was leaning for another kiss when another whistle was suddenly heard from the second boat. The sound caught Clarke off guard and she turned her head to face the water. "I should probably wait over where they're coming back, for Octavia."

"So wait over there, but don't deny me a kiss because of it," Lexa whined, drawing a blue gaze back over to her.

"Greedy," Clarke accused, but she was smiling as she gave Lexa the kiss that she had originally been planning on giving. Afterward, she made her way down to the last spot in the relay, and she saw that quite a few people were starting to get close to the administrator, who had moved to this side and was ready stop the timer.

Octavia was not one of the people in the front, but Clarke could see Raven swimming in slowly from the second stretch area. A boat was rowing to where she and the other swimmers were, ready to pick them up so that they didn't have to swim all the way back. Looking back to the final part of the relay, Clarke watched as the first person reached the administrator, who stopped his timer and shouted into the bullhorn, "Time for Pod One is... Four minutes and twenty-five seconds!"

People who had been around to see the end results for Pod One started to disperse – Pod Two didn't have their relay for another hour, and the rest of the relays were spaced out accordingly throughout the rest of the day. Clarke wondered if that actually had any effect on how well people did, but she supposed that it probably didn't.

Octavia reached the beach just as Raven came in on the boat that had gone and picked her and a few other people out of the water. "Nice job," Clarke said to both of them.

"Did you make it far?" Octavia wondered, tilting her head.

"Uh, no," the blonde replied. "Also I'm pretty sure that all of the slowest swimmers were in the first part of the relay."

"I actually think the middle part was shorter," Raven admitted, "because I almost made it all the way, and there wasn't even really enough time for our group to end up very far from one another."

"Dammit," Clarke said, rolling her eyes. "Whatever, it's over. I'm going to go change and then work some more on the banner."

"I'll help you," Octavia offered, smiling. "We actually had a pretty good system on Saturday."

Clarke smiled back gratefully. "You in, Raven?"

"No, thanks," Raven replied, and Clarke didn't miss the frown on Octavia's face that cause the other brunette to quickly add, "Drawing really isn't my thing. I get so bored so easily. I'll go hang out with Harper or something."

Clarke and Octavia ended up having actually a really good system when they got back to drawing. Clarke would draw the light sketch for one part and then move on to the next, and Octavia would trace the lines with a darker, finished sketch. The darker lines were necessary for people who were going to be filling them in with paint, because it was inevitable that not all of them would take the time to pay really close attention if the lines weren't obvious. Octavia also went back and, by Clarke's direction, labeled the inside of each part with the color that it needed to be painted.

Needless to say, Clarke was not going to let anyone mess up her design. It was the one thing she was really going to be able to take pride in at camp this summer, and if it wasn't perfect, it would be her own fault and not someone else's.

As they drew, Clarke glanced over at her friend and finally found herself asking, "So, what's up with you and Raven now?"

"What do you mean?" Octavia asked, not looking up from her pencil.

"I mean on Saturday night, you and her disappeared after dinner, and then you came back smiling, and yesterday you two were perfectly buddy-buddy again, and today you're starting to give her heart eyes."

"What? I don't give anyone heart eyes!" Octavia exclaimed defensively, getting Clarke to smirk to herself. "And nothing's going on. I mean... I don't know. I sort of... kissed her on Saturday night."

"Uh, sort of, or you did?"

Octavia rolled her eyes. "I did. It was nice." Clarke glanced over at her friend again.

"Are you blushing right now, Octavia?" she asked, a grin spreading across her face. "Aw!"

"Don't coo at me like that like I'm a baby or something," Octavia muttered. "We didn't really set anything into stone but... I don't know. I guess we're at the stage where you and Lexa were at before you guys stole each others' innocence in a tent."

"Who says that neither of us had lost our innocence before that?" Clarke asked, furrowing her eyebrows slightly.

"I meant with each other," Octavia brushed off.

The blonde smirked. "Oh, well still. That wasn't the first time."

"What?" Octavia demanded. "Please tell me that you two didn't go out to that stupid spot in the woods."

"We didn't," Clarke promised. "But I am not telling you where we did go."

"Clarke!" the younger girl whined, "Tell me!"

"No way," the blonde insisted, laughing lightly. "Just help me finish this thing so that we can start painting tomorrow."

"Ugh, fine."

They sort of forgot about Pod Two's relay, but a few minutes before Pod Three's, Lexa's voice suddenly broke them out of their focus. "Hey," she called, "Pod Three is about to go if you guys want to come watch."

Clarke set down her pencil and turned her head to look at her girlfriend. She didn't really care to watch the relay and see how fast other people were going, but a break to hang out with Lexa definitely didn't sound bad. "Okay," she agreed, standing up as Octavia did the same.

"What was Pod Two's time?" Octavia asked Lexa. "I guess we sort of forgot that the competition was even happening."

"Four minutes and thirty seconds," Lexa answered. "So you're still technically in the lead. By five seconds."

"Not doubt that will change after Pod Three," Clarke said, rolling her eyes as she laced her fingers through Lexa's. "Isn't Anya a swimmer, too?"

"Yes, and she's still very butt hurt that you stole her flag last week. So I'd say your chances to maintain first place right now are definitely pretty low," Lexa admitted.

"If you guys win this competition, we literally have to win the last two competitions just to tie," Octavia muttered. "If someone else wins, though, then we have a chance to actually win. So I think I'm going to be cheering for Anya when we get down there."

"Thanks for the support," Lexa said, laughing lightly. "Anya's a pretty good swimmer, but I'm still going to try to beat her. Her ego does not need to be fed. She already thinks she's better than me at everything."

"I guess it just depends how good your guys' pods are," Clarke reasoned. "You can't swim all three parts of the relay, after all." At this point, they were approaching the lake, where the first group of swimmers was lined up, ready to go. Anya was not among them.

Raven joined the three of them as the camp administrator released the first group. Clarke could already tell that they were way faster than Pod One had been. "Yeah, we're screwed," Raven said. "And I thought that winning last week might've built us some sort of momentum to keep winning."

"Too bad physics doesn't apply to luck," Octavia commented, sighing.

"How goes the banner?" Raven asked, switching topics and deliberately looking away from the lake.

"Design should be finished today," Clarke admitted, "which means that more people can start working on it, because painting inside the lines is easier than actually doing the drawing."

"Our banner sucks," Lexa stated. "I went to look at it this morning, and I have no idea who's doing it, but whoever it is didn't think about drawing it out first at all. It's about a quarter of the way done, but it looks like it's just being done on a whim."

"Well, it's a good thing that we have a Clarke in our pod, then," Raven teased, grinning at the blonde.

"Oh wow, I feel so important when you refer to me as a Clarke," Clarke answered dryly, rolling her eyes.

It wasn't long before two whistle sounds had passed, and that point, Lexa pulled Clarke closer to the end of the relay, clearly watching for Anya. Clarke spotted her almost immediately – easily ahead of everyone else in the group and making her way to the end of the relay incredibly quickly.

When she reached the administrator, he stopped his timer and called out, "Three minutes!"

"Yeah, we just got absolutely wrecked," Clarke stated.

"You did," Lexa agreed playfully. As Anya waded toward them, Lexa called, "Not half bad."

"Oh, please," Anya retorted, "there is no way that your pod is going to get that low of a time. You might have some pretty competitive people on your team, but you do not have as many swimmers as we do."

"Oh, so that's where they all went," Clarke commented.

"Yep, and together, we destroyed you," Anya replied, getting out of the water and crossing her arms. "That's what you get for stealing our flag atmy spot that Lexa so selfishly showed you-"

"How is that selfish?" Lexa asked, tilting her head.

Anya finished her sentence, "-so that you two could have sex."

"Hey wait, that's not why I-"

"Whatever," Anya said, waving her hand at the brunette. "Doesn't matter, because Pod Three is winning this competition. There's no way we aren't."

* * *

Hours later, Clarke and Octavia were nearly done with the design – Clarke was drawing the last section while the brunette was tracing over the second to last one. Raven and Lexa had come to them a couple of times to keep them updated on Pod Four and Pod Five, both of which ended up beating Pod One, but by only a ten to thirty seconds. That meant that there was still a wide gap between Pod Three and the current second place.

Clarke was actually curious to see if Lexa's pod would end up stealing first place, or if Anya had been right about her team.

About ten minutes before Pod Six was due to start their relay, the design for the banner was completely finished. Octavia let out a loud huff of relief. "Finally!" she exclaimed. "How do you do this regularly for fun? My hand hurts!"

"You get used to it," Clarke replied, laughing lightly. "And usually I don't draw things this big. Plus, it comes naturally to me, and you were just tracing my lines, so that's probably why your hand hurts. I'm going to have to let the other people who wanted to help know that it's ready to be painted starting tomorrow. You don't have to help with that part if you don't want to, you were seriously a huge help though, thank you."

"Of course," Octavia replied, smiling widely. "I wasn't going to make you do the whole thing by yourself. C'mon, you wanna see your girlfriend swim like a bad ass, right?"

"Hmm, yes, I do," Clarke answered, blushing slightly and hopping up.

Lexa wasn't anywhere to be seen when they got to the lake, but Clarke had a feeling that, like Anya, she was going to be swimming during the last stretch.

This was probably the most intense of all of the relays, because everyone wanted to know if Echo's team was going to beat the flat three minutes that Pod Three had gotten. Almost the whole camp was there to watch, and Clarke had to actually push her way closer to the end location of the relay so that she could watch for Lexa.

By the time she got to a decent spot, the relay had already begun. Clarke felt the general tension that was being felt in the whole group of people watching and waiting to see what the final time would be.

When the last stretch started, Clarke easily picked out her girlfriend swimming among them. Well, among them for a moment, and then ahead of them, and then completely apart from them – clearly the best swimmer in the group.

When she was halfway to the end, Anya suddenly came to stand by Clarke. "Wanna bet money on whether or not they beat me?"

"Not really," Clarke replied, unable to take her eyes off of the girl. "How the fuck do you guys swim so fast?"

"We do this every day during the school year," Anya reminded the blonde. "Here she comes."

When she reached administrator, the entire crowd went silent, waiting to hear what he would say about it. "Alright, Pod Six has completed the relay with a time of..." Clarke could see Lexa literally holding her breath. "Three minutes and two seconds!"

"Hah!" Anya exclaimed.

"Screw you," Lexa yelled to her friend as she waded in. "There was no way that I wasn't faster than you."

"That doesn't matter, though," Anya reminded the brunette. "I told you we'd beat you."

"By two seconds!" Lexa exclaimed.

Anya shrugged, grinning evilly and making her way off toward the mess hall, where the rest of her pod was heading, to get their first pick of dinner. It kind of surprised Clarke that it was already so late, and that she had spent most all of her time working on the banner.

As Lexa got out of the water, she said, "For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure that you actually did swim faster than she did."

"Thanks," Lexa said, laughing lightly and shaking her head. "It doesn't even matter, I just know she'll never let me live it down. Two seconds, fuck that."

"On the bright side, you look hotter in a bikini than she does," Clarke offered, batting her eyelashes at her girlfriend, who smiled as her cheeks tinted slightly pink.

"You're my girlfriend, you have to say that," Lexa argued, her arms suddenly wrapping around the blonde and holding them close together.

Clarke deadpanned, "You're right, your best friend is way hotter than you."

"Oh fuck you," Lexa muttered, laughing for a moment before trying her best to pout despite it.

"You can, but not here," Clarke said, wiggling her eyebrows and grinning widely at her girlfriend, who was now blushing lightly.

"Does that mean you finally finished that banner?"

"The design part, yes," Clarke answered. "It still needs to be painted, but that shouldn't take as long."

"Mm, good," Lexa said, smiling as she tightened her hold on Clarke's midsection, bringing their faces closer together. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against the blonde's. After a moment, she murmured against them, "So you're all mine, now?"

"Not all yours, but more so," Clarke replied.

"Lame," Lexa muttered, before sliding her tongue into her girlfriend's mouth. The deeper kiss lasted for a minute, and then Clarke pulled back, leaving Lexa pouting again.

"I'm hungry," Clarke said, 'I think I accidentally skipped lunch."

"Idiot," Lexa said, rolling her eyes playfully as she released the blonde from her hold and took her hand instead. "Well, since I don't want you to starve to death, I guess we can go get dinner."

Clarke grinned at the brunette, who was fighting a smile.

She couldn't wait until the banner was done, because like Lexa had said earlier – she owed her. And Clarke knew exactly how to pay her back.


	19. Chapter 19

Clarke's number one priority throughout the rest of the week was the banner – because as she learned late Tuesday morning when she woke up, there were very few people willing to help with the painting part of it. It was definitely a let down for the blonde, because she had been planning on having many more people help her. The other pods were much further behind than they were, too, which was probably one of the reasons that so many people didn't see any sense in prioritizing it.

But Clarke, as an artist, refused to let something that was essentially her work turn out badly. She was typically a pretty stubborn person, very much so when it came to finishing things that she started.

Tuesday was spent in large part starting the paint portion. She did her favorite parts first – the parts that she wanted to look nice. Her sketchbook, for example, and some of the more complicated designs that she had created. She took probably more time than necessary on them, but she had actually begun to really like her design, and was getting pretty excited to see it come together.

Halfway through the lunch period – when she was considering when she should go, a few girls that Clarke recognized as members of her pod saw the banner's progress and offered to help. She left them with instructions to start painting at one end based on the labeled colors, and they happily painted while Clarke went to get lunch.

She intended to go back afterward and work more, because she would rather work more in the beginning of the week and finish by Thursday rather than Friday, but a certain distraction found her while she was finishing up her food.

Lexa sat down directly across from Clarke, drawing blue eyes to meet green ones. "Hi," Lexa greeted her, smiling sweetly. "Busy morning?"

"Painting," she answered, though it was probably obvious, since her hands were stained with dark blue paint. "Some people finally offered to help, though."

"I feel like you've literally done the whole thing by yourself," Lexa said, frowning.

Clarke shrugged. "Well, if I didn't, we probably would have a blank canvas at the end of the week. Can't have that."

"Can you take a break?" Hopeful green eyes made Clarke's heart skip a beat.

"I guess I can spare a couple of hours," Clarke replied, smiling shyly at her girlfriend. "Well, as long as you don't suggest that we go swimming, anyway."

"I wasn't going to," Lexa replied, and amused smile spreading across her face. "Actually, I have no idea as to what to do. So you better start coming up with some."

"Can we just walk around and talk or something? I haven't gotten to talk to you very much, and you're one of the few people that I actually enjoy talking to for long periods of time," Clarke admitted.

Lexa laughed, nodding. "Of course."

* * *

On Wednesday, about a fourth of the painting on the banner was complete. At that rate, they would finish on Friday, which wasn't too bad, except that Clarke had something to do on Friday that would take a few hours, and she didn't want to do it after a long day of painting. Plus, she wasn't sure when exactly the camp administrators wanted the banner done by.

So she spent even more time on the banner than she had the previous day, and managed to rope Harper and a few guys into helping her paint. Their progress was far smaller than hers was in the end, but combined, they managed to get over half of the banner fully painted. It looked truly amazing.

While she was doing that all day, Lexa was spending time with her best friend. She knew that once Clarke's time was free, Lexa was going to reserve her for a whole day, which meant that she wasn't going to have time to hang out with Anya at all. Plus, she knew that Clarke wanted to finish the banner, so despite her feeling needy for her girlfriend, she spent the day with Anya.

Halfway through the day, they were joined by Lincoln and a few other people, and ended up going down to the lake starting a game of chicken in the part of the lake that was the necessary depth for the game. Anya and Lexa became the queens of the game, with Lexa on Anya's shoulders, and they went undefeated by the end of the day.

Octavia and Raven avoided their friends in favor of hanging out with one another. They walked through the woods, just talking, and went up to the fields – where Octavia tried to teach Raven the basics of soccer, failing miserably when she realized that the older girl literally had no passion for sports. Their day ended with a small, shy kiss, initiated by Raven, and wide, goofy smiles.

Thursday, unsurprisingly, was much the same.

* * *

Friday morning, Clarke woke up feeling giddy. She was finally done with the banner – she would get Octavia and Raven to help her drag the thing to wherever it was supposed to go after breakfast. It looked awesome, incredible really, and Clarke was very proud of it.

There were more reasons than just that for Clarke to be giddy, though. For one, she would get to spend time with Lexa today, as well as her friends, but she was also going to officially lay out something that she had been planning in her head since Monday. It would take a couple of hours for her to do completely, so she figured that she might have to make up an excuse to give to her girlfriend to cover for her during that time.

Or she might not have to make up an excuse, rather she could just slightly smudge what she was doing with Octavia, because she knew that she was going to need to request her friend's help.

The first thing she did after waking up was shower, because she had been so tired the previous night that she had skipped showering, and then headed up to the mess hall.

"Good morning," she said brightly to her friends as she sat down with her food. "Is it just me, or is it a much better day today?"

"Lemme guess, you finished the banner last night?" Raven asked, quirking up an eyebrow.

"Yes, I did, and now I'm officially free again. Plus, it looks fucking awesome," Clarke stated, taking a bite of her food.

"We saw it this morning," Octavia admitted, "and it really does look awesome. I know some people helped, but really it's thanks to you that it's done. Since a lot of people probably won't thank you, I'll just say thank you on behalf of the whole pod."

Clarke laughed lightly. "No problem. It was fun. Hey, have you seen Lexa at all yet?"

"She was in here with Anya about ten minutes ago," Raven answered, "but they left pretty soon after we got here. Don't know where they were going, though, so you might have to scout for them."

"Okay," Clarke said, nodding, "but before that, Octavia, I need to request your help."

Octavia's eyebrow quirked up. "What's up?"

"I need you to help me sort of... uh, break into one of the camp buildings that holds like... supplies and stuff," Clarke stated slowly. Octavia's jaw dropped.

"Wait, why?"

Clarke went into the explanation of what she was planning, and finally managed to get Octavia to agree to get her what she needed from the supplies building.

At that point, Clarke decided that it would be better for her to get her whole plan ready before going to find Lexa, because that way, she wouldn't have to make up an excuse to disappear, and could spend a good portion of the afternoon and the whole evening with her girlfriend.

So she made her way back to her cabin after breakfast and nestled herself into her bed, taking out her sketchbook and flipping to the back of it. She tore two pages out of it and set off to work.

* * *

"Is it done?" Lexa asked in a quiet voice, looking to Luna, who was standing next to her and also looking down at the sloppily put together banner in front of them.

Luna shook her head. "Travis said that he's going to finish painting it before lunch, and he's gone to get the rest of the paint he needs to do so. I think I should help him. I mean, it's not completely awful... I'm sure it''ll look a lot better when the right side is painted as well. You wanna help?"

Lexa tried not to actually groan. "Um... I think my hand eye coordination works better for things like fencing than artistic things."

Luna didn't look surprised. "No problem. I'll get Caris and Ryder to help. They've basically been walking in clueless circles since Echo started disappearing off with Bellamy. They've never spent time during camp not following Echo's every move."

"Yeah, they could probably use something to put their minds to," Lexa agreed, nodding. "I'm going to go look at everyone else's banners before they get turned in."

"See you later," Luna said, flashing the girl a smile as she walked off.

Lexa was feeling bored. She hadn't seen Clarke yet, and she really just wanted to spend time with her. In passing Pod One on her way to the mess hall that morning, she had noticed that the banner was completely done, so she knew that Clarke wasn't working on it. She knew better than to think that Clarke was avoiding her, though, because that made absolutely no sense. So she was trying not to think about it.

She got to Pod Five and saw that the banner was complete, laid out nicely and ready to be turned in. It was themed like fire and actually didn't look too bad. Pod Four was a very simple design – with the pod name written through the middle neatly in big, bold letters, with an hombre from dark blue to light blue behind it. Not too bad, but very simple. Pod Three – Anya's of course – was themed like the forest. It probably could've been really, really awesome, but it was a bit uneven. Still very good. Pod Two was less of an artsy thing, and the whole background was covered in little signatures and quotes from the members of the pod.

Then there was Clarke's. Lexa felt more like calling it Clarke's banner than Pod One's, since she knew that her girlfriend had done the majority of it by far. When she went to see it, though, because she hadn't actually looked at it while it was complete, but found that it was gone. They'd probably already turned it in. She knew, though, that was by far the best.

She also knew that Pod Six's banner was by far the worst.

After reaching the area of Pod One and seeing nothing, Lexa turned back around and headed down to the lake. What else was there to do?

When she got there, she stopped and looked over the water, wondering what she should do. Before she could even make a decision, though, arms were snaking around her waist, and Clarke's front was pressing against her back. "Hi," the blonde murmured into Lexa's ear. The embrace made Lexa close her eyes and breathe out contently.

"Hey," she almost hummed.

"Did you miss me?" Clarke murmured, placing a soft kiss on Lexa's neck as the brunette nodded.

"Yes. And by the way, I'm reserving you for all day tomorrow," Lexa said softly, enjoying the feeling of Clarke's lips on her skin. "No objections."

"I wasn't going to object," Clarke insisted. "Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing," Lexa replied. "I was just wandering around because I was bored. But you're here now."

"Mmhmm," Clarke hummed, pulling her arms out from around the brunette and allowing Lexa to turn around and face her girlfriend. "We just turned our banner in."

"Yeah, I saw. I wanted to look at it all done, but it wasn't there," Lexa admitted.

Clarke shrugged. "I'm sure we'll get to see them all at some point. I think it turned out pretty awesome. I probably got way too invested in it, but I couldn't let it turn out worse than the picture I had in my head. You know?"

Lexa nodded, smiling. "Art is your passion, it makes sense. It's like when Anya and I have to swim in a friendly camp swimming competition and put all of our efforts into it even though it's just a friendly competition." Clarke laughed at that, nodding.

"Exactly," she agreed. "But both of those things are all done now."

"So, do you-"

Lexa's question was cut off when suddenly Octavia was running toward them. "Clarke, Lexa! C'mon, I am recruiting both of you guys for the soccer game I'm starting."

"Uh, no thanks," Clarke said, quirking her eyebrows up.

"Please," Octavia pleaded, frowning. "I finally got Raven to agree, and I have almost enough people. You've spent like three days in a row sitting on the ground painting – don't you want a break?"

"Yeah, but not a break where I have to run around kicking a ball."

Octavia gave the blonde her best pout. "Please? For me? So I can force Raven to play soccer with me?"

Clarke looked to her girlfriend, who shrugged. "Works for me. As long as I'm on your team."

"Deal! Team Clarke and Lexa! Cool! Come on, let's go!" Octavia exclaimed, grinning and turning back around to head up to the fields.

"I'll just say it now," Clarke said to the brunette next to her, "I've never played soccer in my life."

"Well, I have. And I'm not half bad," Lexa admitted.

Lexa explained the actual rules part of the game to the blonde as they made their way to the fields, because Clarke had evidently thought that the game was literally just about kicking the ball.

When they got the field, Octavia, who had run ahead of them on the way back, was splitting everyone she had gotten to play into two teams. She was captaining one of them, with Raven on her team, and once Clarke and Lexa arrived, she dubbed the latter of the two as the team captain for the second team. Evidently, it was just clear that Lexa could play the game.

The game didn't work out the greatest for Clarke or her team. Lexa wasn't half bad at the game, but Octavia was significantly better. Clarke wasn't sure that she remembered Octavia mentioning that she played soccer, but it was pretty evident that she did. Her team won by a significant gap.

It was fun, though, even Clarke could admit that much.

Plus, having Lexa by her side through it all wasn't at all bad, because for the whole duration of the camp, she'd been forced to compete against Lexa. It was nice to be on the same side for once.

At the end of the day, after dinner, Clarke excused herself from her friends somewhat earlier than normal and began to finalize her plans for the following day. She went through everything that she had set up earlier in the day, and then checked that Octavia had gone through with her part successfully. She had, of course.

Once Clarke was sure that everything was ready, she went back to her cabin and curled up into her blankets. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will herself to sleep, because she was almost too giddy about her plan to drift away easily.

Finally, though, she fell asleep.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Heads up: this story only has 24 chapters, so alas, it is coming to an end. Thank you all for your reviews and favorites and follows :D You are all amazing! xx**

* * *

Clarke was up far earlier than she was normally, because she'd come to the realization that Lexa almost always had breakfast before her, and the brunette had reserved Clarke for the whole day. Who was Clarke to deny her the morning as well?

Sure enough, Clarke entered the mess hall, grabbed her breakfast and then immediately spotted Lexa sitting at a table with Anya. She smiled to herself and started over to the two friends. "Hey," she chirped, seating herself next to her girlfriend.

Lexa was beaming all of the sudden. "You're up early."

"Mmhmm," Clarke confirmed. She was feeling unbelievably happy that morning – her work on the banner was complete, and she was getting a whole day with her girlfriend. And she had some plans for it, too. "You did reserve my company for the whole day. It's only fair that it start early. Not to mention, I kinda wanna spend time with you, too."

"Only kind of?" Lexa teased, quirking up an eyebrow at the blonde.

Anya coughed awkwardly. "Alright, I'm out. See you guys... sometime." Lexa and Clarke both offered the girl a wave as she left the table, and they looked back at each other.

"Did you really interrupt your sleep to spend more time with me?" Lexa asked lightly, smiling at Clarke, who was swallowing a bite of food that she'd taken a moment before.

"Yes," Clarke answered shyly. "Why not? You're not the only one who missed us spending time with each other. A day with just you sounds like heaven. No competition to occupy our time, no stupid banner to paint, and no friends to force us to play soccer."

Lexa let out a laugh. "So what should we do first now that we have time to ourselves?"

It was a good question, because Clarke's plan wasn't going into effect until a little later in the day – a lot later, actually. She hadn't planned much else for the first part of the day, and she was counting on Lexa to come up with something for them to do. Honestly, though, it didn't even matter what they decided. Spending time with each other was really what they wanted to do. "You were the one claiming me for the whole day," Clarke reminded the brunette pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

"There's not enough to do at this place," Lexa whined.

That was true – if you wanted to be sporty every day, there were tons of things to do at any given moment. Other than that, options were very limited. That's why they somehow ended up on the dock, Lexa sitting up against one of the posts on its edge with Clarke's head in her lap as she played with soft, blonde hair.

They were playing a question game of sorts – it was entertaining and helped the two of them get to know each other even more.

"When did you start drawing?" Lexa wondered, her green eyes focused on Clarke's content expression – the blonde's eyes were closed and a small smile was on her face.

"I don't really know. Sometime when I was a kid. I just started doing it. At first it was just sort of a past time, but I got really into it, and that was when my mom started getting more and more cynical about it." Clarke raised her eyebrows slightly, even with her eyes closed, and imitated her mom as she said, "'Clarke, if you keep doodling pictures all day, you're never going to get into med school!'"

"She really wants you to go to med school, huh?"

"Mmhmm. She wants me to do a lot of things. Be valedictorian of my senior class, go to med school, marry a nice boy and have three kids and a white picket fence," Clarke said. The blonde let out a sigh. "She doesn't get it. Anyway. Why'd you start swimming?"

"When I met Anya, she was a swimmer. During the phase of our pre-friendship where I followed her around like she was a goddess and she ignored me, I went to one of her swim meet things. It was very small and not really the most official thing ever – she was in fourth grade after all – but when I saw everyone swimming, I just really wanted to do it," Lexa admitted. "I sucked at first."

"You don't suck anymore," Clarke commented, opening her eyes and looking up at the brunette with a smile.

"True," Lexa agreed, a cocky smile spreading across her face as she added, "I even beat Anya's record time last year. Don't mention it around her, though, she's still in denial."

"Ooh, drama," Clarke teased. "I wanna watch you guys at a swim meet someday. They look super cool."

"They're boring until the end," Lexa said, "because that's when I swim."

Clarke let out a bright laugh. "Wow, conceited much?" Lexa rolled her eyes playfully. "Your turn to ask a question."

"What are you looking forward to most about your senior year?" Lexa wondered, watching as Clarke's eyes flickered shut again.

"Mm," she hummed. "I have no clue. I guess not worrying about stupid tests. Took the PSAT, SAT and ACT last year. Done with that shit. Hope you're ready for it."

"I'm still trying not to think about it," Lexa admitted. "I've heard that junior year is the worst."

"It really is," Clarke replied. "I'm sure you'll be fine though. You're good at everything."

Lexa shook her head, chuckling. "No, I'm not."

"Whatever you say. Hmm. I'm running out of questions," Clarke murmured. "Your hands in my hair are distracting."

"Want me to stop?"

"Uh, no." Lexa smiled softly. After a silent few moments, Clarke spoke again. "Hey, didn't you say a few weeks ago that Anya like some guy in her pod? How come she started liking Raven all of the sudden?"

Lexa laughed a small laugh. "Anya kinda drifts around with who she likes. She probably never even really liked Raven very much – I mean they barely knew each other. Probably she just thought she was hot. The day that Anya ends up in a super serious relationship will be the day pigs fly, I swear."

It was another few minutes later before either of them said anything else, but Clarke finally said, "You know, I'm really glad that my parents made me come to this place. I got to meet Octavia, and Raven, and you. I've never had people I've been this close to."

"I'm glad you came here, too," Lexa agreed, realizing all of the sudden that she was braiding a piece of Clarke's hair. It looked nice braided. "This summer probably would've been way worse without you."

"Right back at you," Clarke said, smiling.

At some point about an hour after that, Lexa ended up in the lake, and Clarke was whining, "I don't wanna swim, Lex."

"Then how come you wore your bikini under your clothes?"

"Are you using x-ray vision to look through my clothes now? That's a little creepy, you know?" Clarke said, quirking an eyebrow up at the brunette.

"I saw the tie behind your neck," Lexa explained, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, you knew you were going to end up swimming with me." She swam up next to the dock, pulling herself up suddenly and placing a soft, lingering kiss on Clarke's lips. She fell right back into the water, though, leaving Clarke with a pout across her face.

"Are you bribing me with kisses now?" Clarke whined.

"You know you wanna swim with me," Lexa said, stretching out the last word.

Clarke huffed. "Fuck it," she grumbled, pulling off her shirt in a swift motion and adjusting her position in order to wiggle out of her shorts. She knew that Lexa was staring, and she tried not to smirk as she finally took off her shoes and lowered herself into the cold water. "Gimme my kisses."

Lexa swam a bit away. "Come and get them."

"Lexa," Clarke whined, swimming forward toward her girlfriend. The brunette only teased her for a little longer, and the she finally let the blonde catch up to her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Fine, you can have your kisses," Lexa said, smiling widely before placing her lips against Clarke's.

The blonde shivered at the feeling of Lexa's arms holding her close and their lips pressing together warmly. Lexa took control of it, and Clarke didn't really mind. Her hands traced invisible patters on Lexa's lower back as their mouths clashed hungrily.

When they broke apart to breathe, they kept their foreheads connected. "I missed you," Lexa murmured.

"Same," Clarke replied, before joining their lips again.

* * *

They ate dinner as early as they could, because Clarke had insisted that she was very hungry, and then they decided to split up to take showers and then meet up again.

Lexa showered quickly – she was enjoying her day with Clarke, and being suddenly apart from her felt unfair. When she got out of her shower she quickly dried herself and then changed into slightly comfier clothes than what she had been wearing previously.

On her way out of her cabin, her eye caught onto a piece of paper stuck on the door. Curious, she pulled it off and realized that it was a note.

 **Lexa,**

 **I missed you this week, and I wanna make up for the time we didn't have together. You better come and find me!**

 **Hint: The dreaded location that I spent all week painting at!**

 **~Clarke**

Lexa quirked up an eyebrow. She folded the piece of paper and shoved it into her pocket before leaving the cabin and making her way to Pod One.

Clarke was nowhere to be seen, and she heard no shower running from the Red Cabin. Instead, on one of the bottles of paint that had been left out in the area where the banner used to be was another note with Clarke's neat handwriting on it.

 **That one was pretty easy, but they'll get harder... Or maybe not, because let's be honest, I don't want this to take a long time. That means less Lexa time :(**

 **Hint: Where you made a joke about promising to protect my face.**

 **~Clarke**

Lexa felt a half smile appear on her face as she shoved this note into her pocket as well, before making her way to the fencing area.

There, she found yet another note.

 **You're getting closer! :D You should hurry up, though, I'm waiting for my Lexa kisses :(**

 **Hint: Where you apparently thought I was cute even though I was trying to be angry.**

 **~Clarke**

Lexa's mind pinpointed what the blonde meant easily – it was the first time they really met, when Clarke was sitting on that rock in the woods and Lexa had scared her. Amused, Lexa made her way to that spot and immediately saw another note on the rock.

 **Okay, I'll be honest. I wrote these all Friday morning before I came to hang out with you. I deprived myself of Lexa time :( That's why you need to hurry!**

 **Hint: Where you fucked me against a tree.**

Lexa swallowed thickly, biting her lower lip and putting the note into her pocket before turning around and making her way to the dock.

She found the note concealed pretty well on said tree, which was probably intentional since Clarke figured that they would go there before the note was intended to be found.

 **There's just one more note after this one, sorry for making you walk around. :) To be honest, though, you subject yourself to exercise every day, so you can't really complain. ;)**

 **Hint: Where I fucked you in return for fucking me against a tree.**

 **~Clarke**

None of these hints had become at all difficult, but this one did require the most walking. Lexa didn't really mind, though, because she was now just very curious as to what was going to be at the end of this trail. Well, Clarke of course, but she had a feeling...

It took a few minutes to find the note at the edge of the field, because like the one at the dock, it was concealed pretty well. When Lexa did grab it, though, the message was simple.

 **No one ever goes across the field, but there's a clearing in the trees right back there.**

 **~Clarke**

The fields didn't take long to cross, and once Lexa slipped through the treeline, she almost immediately stepped right back out of it into a decent sized clearing.

In the middle of it was one of the tents that her pod and Clarke's had had to sleep in for that one weekend. Lexa had no idea how she'd managed to get a hold of it.

Lexa saw that the entrance flap wasn't zipped up, so she bit down lightly on her lower lip and pushed it out of the way, ducking into the tent. Clarke was sitting inside of it, looking clean and showered, with her sketchbook on her lap. Her blue eyes immediately flickered up to meet green ones once she heard the tent flap open.

"Hey," Lexa said, a small smile on her face as she entered the tent and zipped up the entrance. "You could've just told me where to go in the first place."

Clarke grinned. "This was more fun."

Lexa looked around the tent and saw many blankets and pillows around it. "Where did you get all this stuff?"

"One of the storage buildings in camp. Seeing as I've been Octavia's partner in crime, I sort of forced her to help me," Clarke admitted, smiling shyly. "There aren't very many places where we can really be alone and... I wanted to make one for us, for at least one night."

A smile spread across Lexa's face. "It's perfect. And you're such a sap, by the way."

"I'm not," Clarke argued, narrowing her eyes at the brunette, who was kneeling down next to where Clarke was sitting.

"Yes, you are," Lexa argued, gently closing Clarke's sketchbook and setting it aside. Clarke watched her movements carefully, clearly anticipating what was coming next. "You literally left me a trail of notes to use to come and find you. If that's not sappy, I don't know what is."

"I am not sap-" Before Clarke could finish her assertion, Lexa's lips cut her off with a determined kiss. Clarke responded easily, humming against her girlfriend's lips. Lexa's tongue took over her mouth and the blonde didn't mind at all, feeling herself being pushed down against one of the pillows. Lexa's knees were on the ground on either side of Clarke's hips, hovering over the blonde as her mouth dominated.

Lexa's lips suddenly left Clarke's, instead leaving wet kisses down her jawline and onto her neck. Clarke let out a content sigh, and then she felt Lexa's hands grabbing at the bottom of her shirt.

"Maybe we should just deal with the clothing problem now?" Clarke murmured, and she felt Lexa's lips still against her skin before pulling up off of her.

"Sounds good to me," she agreed, her hands gripping the hem of her shirt and pulling it directly up and over her body, before quickly unclasping her bra and tossing it away. Clarke was left with her mouth dry, and she quickly took in a shaky breath and tore off her own shirt and bra with help from her girlfriend. Lexa then decided that the removal of the lower half of their clothing was not a priority, and lowered her mouth to the valley in between Clarke's breasts.

Lexa's lips closed around her nipple a moment later, and the blonde arched her back at the sudden feeling. Clarke was already ready for more – their moment earlier in the lake had left her hungry for more, and she wanted it now. "Lexa," she pleaded.

The brunette seemed to understand, and began lowering herself on Clarke's body. She quickly rid Clarke of her shorts and her underwear in one swift motion, and then began to press soft kisses on the inside of her thighs. Clarke groaned, wanting Lexa's mouth somewhere else.

Lexa did not oblige, though, and soon her lips were back up at Clarke's, and her leg instead sliding in between the blonde's thighs. Clarke would take what she could get, and began rocking against Lexa's thigh in an effort to get any friction against her center. As their mouths clashed, Clarke groaned and forced one of her hands to try and find Lexa's. When she did, she pulled it down in between her legs.

Lexa pulled her mouth away from Clarke's. "Impatient much?" she murmured.

"Lexa," Clarke growled, aware of how dark her eyes probably were.

"Mmhmm?" Lexa hummed, her hand now lingering just next to Clarke's core. "Did you want something?"

"Stop teasing me," Clarke whimpered, though she meant for it to come out as more of a demand.

Lexa finally touched her and lowered her lips to Clarke's neck, giving in. The brunette was slightly surprised at how worked up Clarke was already, but she supposed that she shouldn't be. Despite her teasing, she worked quickly and with one main intention – she wanted to hear Clarke scream. They were far enough from anyone that they could actually make noise, and she wanted to hear Clarke completely vulnerable.

She succeeded, because as soon as Clarke was reaching her high, she cried out Lexa's name and it was everything Lexa wanted to hear.

She had expected the blonde to take a moment to come down, but Clarke surprised her by immediately flipping their positions as soon as Lexa's fingers had left her center.

Clarke was not feeling like teasing Lexa at all, apparently, because she went straight for removing the brunette's pants and panties. Lexa, hardly surprised as she realized how aroused she was, whimpered as she watched Clarke eye her dripping center with determination.

It was going to be one hell of a night.

* * *

Clarke's fingers were drawing invisible pictures on the soft, tan skin of her girlfriend's back. It was an absentminded activity – it was early in the morning, there was barely any light outside, and she wasn't quite sure what had woken her at this time. It was Sunday – there was hardly a need for her to be up early, especially after the previous night. Her body was still tired from it, but her mind was apparently no longer tired.

"Mm, what time is it?" she heard Lexa mutter all of the sudden.

"Too early," Clarke whispered, "go back to sleep."

Lexa was turning around in her spot, though, her green eyes meeting Clarke's sincerely. The blonde smiled a small smile at her girlfriend. "Why are you awake? Aren't you tired?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore, I dunno why," Clarke admitted, "but I was entertaining myself, and I know you're tired, so sleep."

"Your fingers tickling my back make it hard to sleep," Lexa murmured, the corner of her lips turning up. "But if you hold me, I may be able to fall back asleep."

Clarke smiled, and Lexa turned back around, becoming Clarke's little spoon as she pulled the girl close. It was a few minutes later that Clarke felt herself starting to drift asleep again – apparently holding Lexa was all she needed to relax. As she drifted off to sleep, she murmured, "Lexa... I think I'm falling in love with you..." She didn't hear any response, and she had no idea whether or not Lexa had heard her, because moments later, she was taken over by sleep.


	21. Chapter 21

"Can't we just stay here for the rest of the summer?" Clarke grumbled into the pillow that her face was smashed into. "I don't wanna get up."

"It's probably already like noon, Clarke," Lexa said softly, poking the blonde lightly.

"So?" Clarke huffed. She peeked out from the pillow to look at her girlfriend, who despite insisting that they should probably get up, was wearing no clothing still. Clarke rolled onto her side and wiggled a bit closer to the brunette. "I'd rather just stay here with you."

Lexa smiled and Clarke closed the remaining distance between them with a kiss. Lexa broke it a second later though, and said, "Don't you think people will wonder where we are?"

"And how would they find us if they did wonder?" Clarke asked, quirking up an eyebrow. "I didn't even tell Octavia where I was putting this."

Lexa laughed lightly. "So if we get eaten by a bear or something, we're totally fucked."

"Priorities," Clarke reasoned, before smirking slightly and pressing her lips more firmly against Lexa's now. She was determined to convince Lexa to stay in the tent with her for as long as possible. Lexa gave in and kissed her back, and when she did try and pull away to argue, Clarke rolled on top of her girlfriend and began nipping and sucking at her neck.

"Clarke," Lexa muttered in protest, "it's so late."

"Mmhmm," Clarke hummed against Lexa's skin.

"You're getting pay back because I did this to you last time," Lexa realized. Clarke pulled her lips from Lexa's skin and smiled down at the girl.

"You're catching on," she teased. "Come on, are you really going to insist that we go back when I'm sitting on top of you naked?"

Lexa let out a light sigh, though the look in her eyes told Clarke that she was not at all upset with the turn of events. "I suppose not."

"That's what I thought," Clarke husked, lowering her lips now to Lexa's collarbone and slowly dragging her tongue down her girlfriend's toned body.

* * *

"So... you stayed out in your sex hideout until one," Raven said, quirking an eyebrow up at Clarke, who was freshly showered and was now sitting with her friend by the lake. Octavia was playing Marco Polo in the lake with her brother and a few others. Clarke, having just showered, didn't feel like getting in the water, and Raven had opted to keep her company.

"Mmhmm," Clarke hummed, "and?"

"Is that because you stayed up so late or because you were having morning sex?" Raven asked, laughing.

Clarke rolled her eyes. "I don't think that's any of your business. But if you must know, both."

"Damn," Raven said, nodding proudly. "At least one of us is getting laid."

"How are things with you and Octavia? Obviously not that far, but..."

Raven shrugged. "They're fine. Turns out, she's actually kind of shy about the whole budding relationship thing. She blushes a lot when we're alone together. Totally unexpected but not at all unwelcome."

"Aw, I can totally imagine that Octavia is a closet softie," Clarke said, chuckling and looking over the water at the younger girl. "She seems a lot happier now that she's abandoned being super competitive and dramatic."

Raven nodded. "It's nice just seeing her be." They were quiet for a few moments, not saying anything and just watching their friends play around in the lake.

Clarke heard someone walking up behind them, and she turned her head over her shoulder just as Raven did, catching sight of Lexa approaching them. "Hey," Clarke said, a grin spreading across her face.

Raven snorted. "Welcome back to the land of the living. You two are ridiculous."

"I'm sorry that you're jealous," Lexa teased, leaning down and giving Clarke a sweet kiss on the lips.

"Yeah, right. I am not jealous." Raven narrowed her eyes at the two of them as they broke their kiss.

Clarke quirked an eyebrow up at her friend. "Whatever you say."

"I'm not! Why would I be jealous over having sex with you?"

"Maybe not with me, but you wish that you were having sex all night instead of camping in a cabin with a bunch of people you barely know," Clarke reasoned.

Raven huffed, rolling her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going swimming." She got up and started into the water, and Lexa took her place next to Clarke.

"Oops, I scared your friend away." Lexa looked to the blonde, who was smiling.

"You spend a whole night with me and you still can't stay away?" Clarke teased, lifting her eyebrows slightly as she waited expectantly for the brunette's answer.

"Do you want me to stay away?" Clarke blushed and shook her head. "That's what I thought."

"It's gonna suck when I don't get to see you everyday," Clarke mumbled, giving her girlfriend the best pout she could muster – which wasn't hard to do while thinking about what would come after summer.

"Well on the bright side, after the summer is over, the times when we do get to see each other will be way better. We won't be stuck in a campsite the whole time and we'll have actual places to go and things to do. Not to mention we'll finally be able to sleep together in a bed," Lexa reasoned, looking pointedly at her girlfriend.

Clarke hummed. "True, true."

"Hey lovebirds!" they heard Octavia yell from the water, drawing their attention. "Are you guys getting in the water or not?"

"I just took a shower," Clarke whined, shaking her head.

"Lame!"

Lexa smiled sweetly at Clarke. "I don't think you're lame."

"You're a dork."

* * *

"Good morning, campers!" Monday morning – another competition day, of course. Clarke was hoping that it would involve minimal movement, and she set down her breakfast sandwich to look up at the administrator. "Today's competition is going to be a little bit different. If you go out to the front entrance area of camp, you'll see six banners hanging up – all of yours. They'll be up for the rest of camp, but today, we'll be taking votes for which one is the best. There will be tables out by the banners all day today, and small note cards for you to write your vote on. Our administrators will be checking your pod when you vote, and you will not be allowed to vote for your own pod's banner."

A chorus of groans could be heard throughout the mess hall. Clarke didn't really mind, though, because it made sense. It was the only way to guarantee that not everyone voted for their own pod's banner. Octavia poked Clarke's arm, drawing her attention. "Ours is so going to win," she said, a grin plastered on her face. "Seriously, your design is literally flawless."

Clarke smiled back at her friend, her cheeks tinged pink. The administrator quickly finished what she was saying, and Clarke wanted to go see her banner as soon as possible. She was honestly just excited to see it hanging up, since she'd only been able to look on it while it was spread across the ground.

"Chill, Clarke," Raven said, shaking her head, "it'll still be there when we we go to look after we eat."

Suddenly, Lexa was sitting next to Clarke, catching the blonde off guard, while Anya sat next to Raven and Octavia. "Hey," the brunette said, smiling at her girlfriend, "we just saw the banners hanging up. Yours looks so good."

Clarke gave her friends a pointed look and then got up from the table, grabbing Lexa's hand. "C'mon, I wanna see." Lexa laughed lightly, letting the blonde drag her away.

"Anya and I voted already," Lexa said, getting a curious look from Clarke. "I would tell you which I voted for, but you know, private ballots and all."

Clarke elbowed the brunette, who laughed. "Who'd you vote for?" She stretched out the last word before offering a pout to Lexa.

"Who do you think I voted for?"

"I'd say, but I don't wanna seem presumptuous," Clarke replied, grinning jokingly at her girlfriend.

"You're weird," Lexa said, rolling her eyes despite the smile on her face and squeezed Clarke's hand. They walked out into the big open area right at the front of camp, and in a large half circle sort of shape were six banners hanging each from two tall posts. Clarke's eyes were immediately drawn to her pod's. It was easily identified as the one with the most effort put into its making, and Clarke actually let out a breath when she saw it. Her work had paid off – it looked incredible. "Yours is by far the best."

"Thanks," Clarke said, smiling a small smile as she felt a blush spread across her cheeks. She tore her gaze away from her own, though, because she couldn't vote for it, of course. She looked at the others. None of them were really bad at all, though some were obviously more rushed or done with far less care. "Which do you think I should vote for?"

"It doesn't matter, yours is going to win no matter what," Lexa said, and Clarke rolled her eyes, though she was blushing still. "I don't know, they're all pretty alright. Ours sucks. Apparently we didn't finish until like midday on Friday."

"Hmm," Clarke hummed. She released Lexa's hand to go to the table where some camp administrators were talking and laughing.

One of them looked up at Clarke with a smile as she approached. "You here to vote?" Clarke nodded. "What's your name?"

"Clarke Griffin," Clarke replied, shifting her weight a bit as she waited for the woman to flip through her roster.

"Pod One?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Write your vote down on one of those slips of paper and you can give it to me." Clarke grabbed a pen and one of the pieces of paper, scrawling out her vote before handing it to the woman, who checked over it and then nodded. "Alright, you're good!"

Clarke turned and met back up with Lexa, who was waiting for her. "Who'd you vote for?"

"I would tell you, but you know, private ballots and all." Lexa pouted at the blonde, who just smiled widely. "C'mon, let's do something."

* * *

Lexa walked into her cabin – it was almost time for dinner, and she wanted to change before sitting back down in the mess hall. The first thing she noticed upon entering, though, was that Echo was sitting on her bunk, reading something.

Lexa didn't say anything to her at first, but as she started shuffling through her bag for a change of clothes, the other girl cleared her throat. "Hey."

"Hey," Lexa replied, keeping her green eyes on her bag, even though she felt Echo's eyes on her.

"If your girlfriend wins this competition, then if Pod One wins the last one, they'll tie with us," Echo said, drawing Lexa's gaze finally.

"Mmhmm," she hummed in reply, raising an eyebrow. "And?"

Echo sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have treated you the way that I have since you started hanging out with blondie... err, Clarke. She's not a bitch. Neither are you."

"Thanks," Lexa said softly.

"Sorry if I ruined your summer at all."

Lexa shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It could've been better, but it could've been so much worse, too."

Echo nodded, and Lexa, who took that as the end of the conversation, nodded back before slipping into the bathroom to change.

At dinner, they announced the winner of the banner competition. By a resounding three fourths majority vote, Pod One took the victory.

One more competition was left, with about two and a half weeks left of camp. The score was as follows:

Pod One – 2

Pod Two – 0

Pod Three – 1

Pod Four – 0

Pod Five – 0

Pod Six - 3


	22. Chapter 22

The week following the banner competition was the beginning of the end – at least that's how everyone seemed to be taking it. Especially among the group of people that Clarke was used to being around, because Octavia had calmed considerably, and everyone was being open with one another, and it felt like the drama coming to an end indicated the end of camp. Though, there were still about two weeks left.

It was possibly also because someone had drawn up a tally of scores on a large whiteboard and hung it outside the mess hall. Unless Pod One won on Monday, Pod Six was going to be winning the overall competition in Camp Unite. Clarke didn't really care either way, but the idea that all but one of the competitions had already passed was jarring. How could so much time have passed already?

It didn't help when Friday was announced at "Technology Day". One of the mostly unused buildings was opened up, and inside were rows of computers, and friendly gaming tournaments were held. It made sense for the camp to do that, because some people were far more tech savvy than they were sporty. For example, Monty and Jasper jumped at the opportunity, and even Raven abandoned the group to go do something or another.

It was also the only day that the camp had mini charging stations set up in the mess hall, to let people charge their phones and use them for a day. That's where Clarke found herself, with Octavia. Lexa had opted not to bother with her phone, because she apparently had no one she wanted to talk to from home or anything. Instead, Anya dragged her to watch the gaming tournaments going on, because apparently watching other people play video games was somehow entertaining.

"Who are you gonna call during our day of freedom?" Octavia joked, looking at the blonde next to her.

"Probably just my parents. My friends from school... we're kind of a loose group. We don't usually talk much unless we're at school."

"You better not make me into your 'friend from summer camp'," Octavia threatened, narrowing her eyes at Clarke as she plugged her phone into one of the chargers at the table they were at. "I'm going to make sure that my number is saved into that phone before the day is over, because I will not let you somehow forget to ask me for it before we leave this summer."

"You're crazy, O," Clarke insisted. "I wouldn't just leave camp and never talk to you again. Same with Raven. You guys are like... really good friends. I rarely get so close with people so quickly."

Octavia smiled. "Don't get all sappy on me."

"Why do people keep telling me that I'm sappy?" Clarke asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she glanced down at her phone, which was finally turned on.

"Because you are," the brunette insisted. "Gimme a sec, I'm gonna call my friend Miller. Well, he's sort of Bellamy's friend, but he's mine too. So."

"Go ahead," Clarke said, laughing lightly and shaking her head. As Octavia did that, the blonde texted both of her parents, asking if it was a good time to call and catch up briefly. Her dad didn't answer right away, but her mother did, leaving her with no other option than to talk to her mom.

"Clarke!" her mom exclaimed. "How has summer been so far? Have you not been able to use your phone? Is the campground as nice as the pictures? How about the lake?"

"Chill out, mom," Clarke insisted, a half smile involuntarily appearing on her face. "It's been nice. No to the phones, we haven't really had anywhere to charge them. The camp is basically having a tech day today, so we're all charging our phones and having a day on the internet for once. The camp is nice. The lake is cold, which has been awesome."

"Is it as bad as you thought it would be?" her mom asked, and Clarke could feel how ready the woman was to say that she told her so.

"Some parts of it... but the people here have redeemed the fact that it's outside most all of the time," Clarke replied, slightly disgruntled at having to tell her mom that it wasn't completely bad. "I've made lots of friends, which is nice."

"Ooh, anyone special?"

Clarke took in a breath – now was the moment for her to find out whether or not her mother had sent her to Camp Unite in the hopes that she would meet a boy, or simply to get rid of her for a while, or if it was actually because of her art. "Yeah, actually. There's this girl named Lexa that I met. She and I are kind of... together now."

"Oh, well that's sweet," her mother commented, and Clarke was honestly surprised that she hadn't immediately sounded put off by it.

"You're not upset at all?" She couldn't help but ask – she was too confused not to.

There was a pause from the other end of the line, and then she heard her mom sigh. "Clarke... I wasn't really going to mention this, but since you asked..." Clarke braced herself – here it was. "I realize that I was a little bit harsh before summer... when I mentioned some negative things about your sexuality. You know that I've always been slightly skeptical about the whole thing, and I guess when you and that other girl broke up, I thought it was over. Which was stupid, of course. I wanted to apologize about all of that, Clarke. No matter how I feel about the whole thing, I know that I need to try and understand. After all, you're my daughter."

Clarke was absolutely shocked by the response, and it took her a moment to swallow and finally answer. "Wait, so you didn't send me off to camp because you were tired of dealing with me and my sexuality?"

"What? No, Clarke!" her mom exclaimed, horrified. "I thought it would be good for you to experience different activities besides the one that you're always stuck on doing. I told you that when I told you about Camp Unite, remember? Why would I lie?"

Clarke let out a breath. "Never mind..."

"I love you, Clarke, and I wouldn't just send you off to be rid of you." Clarke suddenly felt bad for thinking that her mom would do that, though the timing of the summer camp suggestion had been rather misleading. "Anyway. Have you been able to try out a bunch of new stuff?"

"Yeah," Clarke answered, before rolling her eyes as she added, "but I still think drawing is the best for me. I'm kind of thinking about maybe delaying college for a year to see if I can work on my portfolio and then get into an art school."

Her mom was silent on the other end of the phone. "Right, well... we can talk about all of that kind of stuff when you get home..." She coughed awkwardly. "Ah, your dad is in a meeting right now, but he'll call you when he's done with it."

"Okay," Clarke replied. "I'll see you in a couple of weeks, mom."

"Have fun, sweetie!"

Clarke hung up the call, completely taken by surprise. Octavia was looking at her weirdly. "What's with you? You look like you just watched a zombie apocalypse start."

"I just... my mom just completely took me by surprise. I thought that she sent me to this place because she was upset about my sexuality. Apparently, that's not the case."

"Uh, then shouldn't you be celebrating?" Octavia said, nudging her friend. "That's good news, right?"

Clarke nodded. "Yeah, of course. Just surprised, like I said. How's your friend?"

"He's good," Octavia replied, smiling. "Apparently he met a guy at the place that he's working this summer and they started dating, which means that Bellamy and I have some serious snooping to do when we get back to make sure that he's actually good guy. Miller has a habit of picking douche bags for some reason."

"Did you say something about Miller?" suddenly, Bellamy was taking a seat across from them and plugging his phone into one of the available chargers.

"He started dating some guy named Bryan," Octavia answered, "who's working with him this summer."

"Good for him," Bellamy commented.

"Uh, hello? Don't you remember Austin?" his sister demanded, raising her eyebrows. "And Nick? We need to make sure that Bryan is actually a good guy."

"We will," Bellamy said, waving her off, "but we don't need to think about it right now. The fact is, if Miller likes him, it doesn't matter. And I'm sure we'll meet him, and then we'll be able to tell Miller if we sense anything fishy. Don't overdramatize it, O."

"That is something that you tend to do," Clarke offered to her friend, smiling toothily when Octavia flashed her a playful glare.

"Fine," she agreed. "I'm trying to think if there's anyone else that I really want to call."

"What about Matthew?" Bellamy said.

Octavia scoffed. "Are you really asking me that?"

"Right... stupid suggestion."

"Who's Matthew?"

Rolling her eyes, the younger girl answered, "This asshole I dated last year. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Fair enough," Clarke agreed. "Anyway, I'm out of people to call right now, too."

"Wow, I sit down and get abandoned," Bellamy commented, looking between the two girls.

"That's what happens when you're late to the party, bro," Octavia told him, hopping up from the table and unplugging her phone. She glanced down at it. "Should last a little bit." Clarke followed suit and turned her phone onto low power mode so that it would still be alive when her dad called her.

He called her about an hour later, just after Octavia had excused herself to go back to the mess hall and call her mom, who had apparently texted her after receiving a call from Bellamy and not his sister. She was standing awkwardly alone in the middle of camp when she got the call, but when she answered it, she made her way toward the dock for lack of anywhere else to just be.

"Hey, dad," she greeted, smiling. "How was your meeting."

"Boring, as per usual," he replied. "How's camp been, sweetie?"

"It's actually not been too bad. I don't know if mom said anything, but I met this girl named Lexa here. She's really amazing. We're together," Clarke admitted. "Plus, I met a few other people who I'm pretty close to now. So despite all of the stupid exercise and nature, it's actually ended up having some good effects."

"Well that's great, I'm happy for you, " her dad said warmly. "Your mom did mention that, though, and she also said that you thought we sent you to camp because we were tired of dealing with your sexuality?"

Clarke flushed. "Yeah, uh... I guess the timing of you guys bringing it up kind of made me think that that had something to do with the idea."

"Clarke, your mother and I both love you. Please don't think we would ever do something so heartless like that," her father pleaded.

"Of course, I'm sorry," Clarke replied, sighing. "So... did you guys suggest camp so that I would decide that I didn't want to do art for a living after high school?"

"That wasn't why. Your mother just thinks that it would benefit you to keep your options open, and that's never a bad idea."

The blonde rolled her eyes as she approached the dock. "She doesn't want me to do art. She wants me to become a doctor or a lawyer or something."

"She wants you to be the best that you can be, Clarke," her dad defended. "Ultimately, what you do with your life is your decision."

"Thanks... I'm thinking about delaying college for a year, actually."

"Yeah, your mother told me. I think that's a big decision that you should really consider before you make it, though, Clarke. You only have a handful of months, of course, since most college applications are due starting November... but I will support you no matter what you decide to do," her dad promised.

She couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, dad. And I'm sorry again about the whole reason why you guys suggested camp."

"Don't worry about it," he insisted.

Clarke's glanced up at the dock as she approached it, and she noticed Lexa, laying on her stomach and looking like she was writing something. "My phone's kind of dying right now, so I think I'll have to let you go. I'll see you in a couple of weeks, though."

"Yep, have a good rest of camp, Clarke," her dad said, "bye!"

The call ended, and by that point, Lexa had noticed Clarke and was gathering up whatever it was that she'd been writing. "Hey," the brunette said, smiling.

"Fancy seeing you here. I was wandering while my dad was one the phone with me," Clarke said. "What were you doing?"

"Nothing," Lexa bluffed, though the flushed look on her face told Clarke that whatever the girl was writing would probably end up being something that she would see anyway. "How was talking to your parents?"

"Fine," Clarke answered, shrugging. "My mom is apparently a better person than I thought she was, which kind of leaves me feeling like a bitch."

"You're not a bitch," Lexa said, rolling her eyes and carefully folding the piece of paper in her hand before sliding it into her pocket, "so you don't have to worry about that."

"Thanks," Clarke replied, rolling her eyes, amused, and took a seat next to her girlfriend. "Did you watch any of the gaming tournament?"

"I left Anya there after a few minutes," Lexa admitted. "It was pretty boring. To be honest, though, sometimes she spends hours on YouTube watching people play video games. I really have no idea why."

"Everyone's different, I guess," Clarke supposed, though she was amused by Anya getting somehow entertained by watching other people play games. "I mean, I guess that's what this whole camp is for, right? Uniting despite our differences?"

"Supposedly," Lexa replied, smiling. "I guess a lot of that ended up happening. I mean, Bellamy and Echo are dating. No one saw that one coming."

"Very true," Clarke agreed. "And I guess you and I didn't have very many differences, but we were on opposing sides. So I guess that counts. Looks like this place actually lives up to its name."

"Who would've thought?"

Clarke smiled fondly at the brunette, leaning forward and pressing her lips softly against the brunette's. When she pulled away a moment later, she moved her position so that she was sitting next to Lexa and cuddling into her. Lexa laughed lightly and hugged her close. "I'm really glad that I met you here, Lexa."

"Me too."

They were quiet for a few moments, and Clarke began to consider telling her girlfriend something that had been increasingly on her mind over the previous week. She chickened out at first, but then she finally convinced herself that she should. As she was building up the courage, their moment was suddenly broken as someone broke from the treeline.

"Seriously? Every time," Anya huffed, crossing her arms and looking at the two of them with narrowed eyes. "I come here to swim and be alone, and you two have to be here."

"Love you too, Anya," Lexa called.

"Loser," Anya muttered as Clarke untangled herself from her girlfriend.

"You can be alone and swim, Anya, I'm kind of hungry, anyway. You wanna join me for lunch, Lex?" she asked, smiling hopefully at the brunette.

"Of course, dork," Lexa answered, and they both stood. "See you, Anya."

"Don't hurry back!"

Lexa laughed as they left the dock. "I promise that she actually likes you."

"Oh I know," Clarke teased, "how couldn't she? I'm awesome."

"And humble, right?" Clarke grinned widely at her girlfriend, who rolled her eyes, a smile plastered onto her face. "Come on you weirdo."


	23. Chapter 23

"What have you been writing all afternoon?" Anya's voice broke Lexa out of her focus and causing her to look up. Her friend had been swimming for a while, and Lexa had been sitting on the edge of the dock with her feet in the water, writing away. It was Sunday, and Octavia had dragged Clarke and Raven off to do something or another.

"Nothing," Lexa said swiftly, pulling her feet out of the water and scooting away from the edge of the dock so that Anya couldn't peak at the paper.

"Seriously? You've been sitting there for hours like writing and erasing some shit on that piece of paper." Anya raised both of her eyebrows. "What is it?"

"It's just a letter," Lexa said. "And it's almost done."

"Who's it for?" Anya questioned, hoisting herself out of the water and causing Lexa to scoot further away to keep the letter from getting wet.

"Someone."

"So Clarke. Okay, what does it say?" Anya pressed, leaning toward Lexa a bit and giving her an expectant look.

"Nothing."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure," her friend replied, rolling her eyes. "Is it a bunch of lovey, mushy shit?"

Lexa narrowed her eyebrows at Anya. "No, it's not. It's just a letter."

"Whatever you say, Lex. Where is your perfect girlfriend anyway?"

"Not sure, she was with Octavia and Raven earlier," Lexa answered, finally looking back down at the letter in front of her. Taking in a breath, she put her pencil back down onto the paper and quickly finished it. "Alright, I'm done. Wanna head back to camp?"

"Sure," Anya agreed, and they both got up and started back.

* * *

Octavia kicked the soccer ball to Clarke, though the blonde squeaked and jumped out of its way rather than kick it back.

"Clarke! Seriously? It's a ball, not a spider!"

Clarke crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't do the soccer thing, Octavia! And just because Raven will play because you ask her to doesn't mean that I'll do the same."

"Hey," Raven said, narrowing her eyes at the blonde, who just shrugged.

"I bet I could two versus one you guys and still win," Octavia said cockily, putting her hands on her hips and quirking up her right eyebrow challengingly. Clarke knew that the younger girl was just saying it to get her to want to play, but even though she knew that, it still worked, both on the blonde and on Raven.

"Fine," Raven said for both of them, "let's do it, then."

A wide grin spread over Octavia's face, and she ran to set up makeshift goals with four rocks – two on either side of the field. Once that was done, she tried to remind the two older girls of the rules, but neither of them really absorbed any of it. Clarke was still pretty sure that she just had to run and kick the ball.

Their mini game lasted for about ten minutes, and Clarke and Raven together actually put up a pretty good fight. Octavia did end up beating them, though. The match left Clarke sweaty and with her mind set on taking a shower, but she had to admit that it was actually fun when she was playing with her friends.

"Told you I could beat you guys," Octavia said, rushing up to them after retrieving the soccer ball. "But at least I finally got you guys to actually play. I don't understand how you don't like sports."

"We're not crazy like you," Raven said, rolling her eyes.

Octavia just grinned and insisted, "You love it, don't try and deny it." She then leaned up and placed a quick kiss on Raven's lips before turning around and dropping the soccer ball, dribbling it back to the front of the field toward camp.

Raven looked slightly surprised by the kiss, and Clarke was as well, because she hadn't seen either of her friends show any public displays of affection at all – she was sure that when they were alone it was different, of course. It was a surprise to see it in the open, though.

"You're dating someone who's insane," Clarke stated, giving her friend a half smile as they started following the other brunette.

Raven smiled. "I know. She's not wrong, though. I don't mind."

* * *

"Good morning, guys!" Clarke turned her head to look at the camp administrator talking into the microphone. It was Monday, so the morning announcement was not at all a surprise. "As you all know, today is the last competition day of the summer. It's been a great one, and this last point could either tie two pods, or leave one pod as the winner. I'm sure we all know that, though, and while we know that there is some competitiveness between everyone here, the one thing we all need to do is take a step back and realize that winning or losing here ultimately doesn't mean much of anything."

There were a few snickers heard from around the mess hall, but it stayed mostly silent as the administrator paused.

"That being said, today's competition is slightly less competitive, and is a bit more laid back in general. All of you will need to go to the table set up in front of the mess hall at some point before four in the afternoon today and fill out one of the cards sitting there. Each card has a random trivia question on it, and you are to write what you believe the answer to be and then turn it into the jar labeled with your pod number. Whichever pod gets the most right answers will win. Any cards caught away from the table will be confiscated and the pod responsible will be disqualified from his final competition," the administrator finished. "Make it a great day!"

"That's boring," Octavia said immediately, huffing.

Clarke shrugged. "At least it's not like super stressful for something. I suck a trivia, though."

"Me too." The voice that chimed in all of the sudden belonged to Clarke's girlfriend, who was taking a seat next to the blonde with her breakfast in her hand. "Hey."

"Hey," Clarke replied, smiling softly at Lexa.

"Do you guys ever stop with the heart eyes thing?" Anya groaned, sitting across from them next to Raven, who was sitting next to Octavia.

"They never do," Raven replied, shaking her head disapprovingly.

Lexa scoffed. "You're both just jealous."

"Yeah, and you're both virgins," Anya answered sarcastically, rolling her eyes as Octavia and Raven both smirked.

"We have awful friends," Clarke commented, looking to her girlfriend, who nodded in agreement.

"You love us."

After they ate, they went and filled out their trivia cards just to get it over with. The trivia didn't end up being too hard, though one of the administrators standing near the table watched them carefully in case they were cheating. It was kind of amusing how seriously he was taking it, mostly just because it felt like everyone at camp hardly cared about it. There wasn't really a way to be sure that everyone in a single pod did well, so it felt almost like chance to get the win. And unless Pod One somehow won it, Pod Six was going to win.

Clarke had long since accepted that, she didn't care too much. Octavia didn't seem too put off by the daunting result either, so the mood throughout the day was relatively light. Clarke had a feeling that that mood would carry through the rest of the week, and then would turn a bit sad when the beginning of their last week – which was really only three days – began.

Camp was going to let out on the following Wednesday, and pickup times were throughout the whole day, so it depended on when rides got there that people would get to leave. Clarke wasn't sure when her parents were going to show up, so she was going to make sure to get in her major goodbyes the night before.

She didn't want to think about that for now, though, because they still had a week, and the mood was still light.

Halfway through the day, after most people had eaten lunch, someone ran through camp shouting something about a water balloon fight.

Lexa and Clarke found themselves being dragged up to the field by Octavia to the location of the alleged water balloon fight, and sure enough, large buckets of water balloons were situated in four different positions – four different teams.

"Oh god," Clarke groaned, as Octavia led them to one of the team sections.

"Oh come on, Clarke, water balloons are fun," Raven said, nudging her in the side.

"But I'm gonna have to change," the blonde whined.

Lexa laughed at her girlfriend, shaking her head. "At least it'll be refreshing in the heat. I swear this is the hottest summer we've had in years." Clarke just groaned again, but then the brunette took her hand, and she stopped complaining.

Until the war broke out, and water balloons were exploding everywhere. At that point, Clarke's friends and Lexa all disappeared, off somewhere throwing water balloons. Clarke finally forced herself to participate, and ended up completely drenched from head to toe, and yeah, it didn't feel too bad.

When their bucket was empty, Octavia and a few others stormed the other teams' buckets, stealing the lasts of their balloons and throwing them at anyone. There was laughing and squealing and running, and it was probably the most relaxed that so many people from every pod had been around each other all summer. Granted, not everyone was participating, but it was still nice.

"Admit it, you had fun," Lexa said, after surprising the blonde and wrapping her arms around her midsection from behind.

"Get off me, you're all wet," Clarke complained playfully, wriggling in her girlfriend's grasp.

"So are you," Lexa defended, chuckling. "I saw you smiling like a weirdo, so you can't deny that you had fun."

"Whatever," Clarke said, smiling a small smile as she finally broke out of Lexa's grasp and then turned around, pressing her lips against Lexa's and hugging her close despite them both being soaked.

Lexa pulled away after a moment, though, smiling slyly as she said, "Get off me, you're all wet."

"Fuck you," Clarke grumbled, stealing her girlfriend's lips again for another kiss. Lexa didn't object this time, and Clarke felt herself glowing on the inside, because she was dating literally the most perfect person ever.

* * *

"Alright campers!" Someone said suddenly into the microphone at the front of the mess hall, drawing everyone's attention. It was just before dinner, and food had yet to be served, but everyone was crowded in anyway to see who would be the winner of the trivia competition, and the whole competition overall.

"Time to find out if we tied," Octavia said as they all looked to the administrator.

"As you all know, our last competition was today... The winner of today's trivia competition was Pod Four," the administrator announced, and a few proud expressions could be seen throughout the mess hall, but the insane excitement most of Pod Six came before the woman could even finish talking. "Which leaves Pod Six as the ultimate winner of Camp Unite this summer. But of course, Pod Four gets first pick on food."

The food was now being served at the side of the mess hall, and everyone from Pod Four jumped up excitedly to go get their food. That was Bellamy's pod, and also Jasper's, Monty's and Lincoln's. Clarke didn't know many other people from the pod, though.

"Well, congrats on your win," Octavia said to Lexa as Clarke turned back in to the conversation.

Lexa shrugged. "Thanks. It doesn't feel all that rewarding to be honest."

"I mean, you don't really get much for it, so," Clarke reasoned. "We came close to tying with you guys, though."

"Mmhmm," Lexa hummed, amusement crossing her expression as her lips turned up into a half smile. "Well, I'm kind of glad that now we have a week without thinking about stupid competition stuff."

About half an hour later, people were starting to filter out of the mess hall and down to the lake for a bonfire to celebrate the Pod Six victory. When Clarke and her friends got down there, Octavia actually approached Echo and congratulated her, and it was such a turn from the first bonfire that the camp had.

Clarke found herself sipping soda and talking to her friends and leaning into Lexa and stealing kisses every now and then. It was just relaxing and nice and honestly, Clarke did not want to leave this place.

By the time she was sliding into her bed that night, she reminded herself that she still had a week, and she squeezed her eyes shut and pretended that the week would just last forever.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Here it is, the end of this story! :) Thank you all for reading, I'm so glad that you all have enjoyed! It's now fully complete both here and on Ao3, and if you didn't know, I currently have two work in progress Clexa stories. One of them is on here, called Cheap Thrills, and the other is on Ao3, called Come With Me. CWM has almost daily updates, Cheap Thrills is a bit slower. Be sure to check them out if you're interested :)**

 **Anyway, enjoy this last chapter! Thank you all for reading and everything, and remember you can follow me on Twitter at BrittzandTana and tweet me that you read this for a FOLLOW BACK! :D XX**

* * *

The last week or so of camp went by too quickly.

At first, Clarke thought that it might at least feel like the nine days that it actually was, but it felt like far less. When Friday rolled around, Clarke felt like it should've still been Wednesday. By Sunday, Friday. By Tuesday, Sunday.

The days were spent playing games and hanging out. Echo and Lexa faced off in another fencing competition, and even though Lexa beat her again, it was all for fun and without any animosity. They spent hours in the lake, fighting the heat from the burning sun. They played multiple games of chicken in the shallower area of said lake, and Clarke and Lexa dominated against Raven and Octavia. When Anya and Lexa teamed, they crushed every other pair, though.

Someone started a game of kickball on one day, like the one from the first competition day, and Bellamy redeemed himself and beat Echo, who was playing on the other team. Clarke didn't play during that game, instead she sat leaning against a tree at the edge of the field with her sketchbook, drawing Lexa from her memory since the other girl was participating in the game. After the game, when the team with all of her friends and her girlfriend won, Lexa grabbed her in a sweaty hug of celebration and even though it was gross, Clarke really didn't mind it.

Another day, someone discovered a stash of water guns that the camp was probably holding for one of their mini camps – which apparently happened during the last bit of summer for younger kids, in periods of two days. A group of people lugged all of the guns down to the lake and filled them up, and a war broke out throughout the whole camp. It beat water balloons, in Clarke's opinion, and she actually managed to drench her friends in a sneak attack with one of water guns.

Lexa forced Anya to race her in the lake, and Clarke and Raven timed them both as they swam between two buoys that the brunette had nabbed from one of the storage buildings. Determined, Lexa managed to beat Anya by five seconds, and the older girl was in an awful mood for the rest of the day. It was totally worth it, in Clarke's opinion, because Lexa's proud expression was adorable. She couldn't help but gift her girlfriend with a congratulatory kiss.

The two of them wanted to sneak away again one night, though after having returned the tent after the first time, the storage building holding them somehow ended up locked up securely. Instead, they stole away during the day to Lexa's cabin and locked the door while everyone else who slept in the cabin was set to be occupied for a good couple of hours. They made do with the small size of Lexa's bed.

They spent more than a couple of hours at their dock, talking or sunbathing after a swim. They luckier with timing and Anya somehow didn't come up to the dock while Lexa and Clarke were there at all. The universe perhaps was gifting them with their much needed private time before camp ended.

Late Tuesday night – the last night that they all had together – Octavia gathered up their whole group and led them through the dark woods carefully. They were equipped with flashlights, and both Octavia and Bellamy had bags with them filled with some things or another. There were quite a few of them there – Bellamy, Octavia, Raven, Clarke, Lexa, Anya, Harper, Lincoln, Monty, and Jasper. Bellamy had wanted Echo to come along, but the girl had refused. The two of them were not worried about any strain on their relationship after camp, because they were the same age, and they lived in the same city.

"Where are we going?" Clarke finally whined, after about ten minutes of walking.

"We have to be a ways away, or the camp people might hear us," Bellamy explained, without explaining the actual destination or their purpose of going. Clarke didn't question any further, though, instead just reaching for her girlfriend's hand and intertwining their fingers. She felt Lexa's green eyes on her in the dark.

Finally, Octavia stopped, cuing everyone behind her to also stop. The girl's flashlight moved down to the ground in front of her, and Clarke heard her breathe a sigh of relief. On the ground was a small fire pit, and as Clarke shined her flashlight around it, she saw that there were small logs laid out around it. It was a campfire.

"Take a seat, guys," Bellamy welcomed them, and all of them found places to sit, Clarke next to Lexa of course.

"We found this place last year," Octavia explained, "so we came prepared his year." She and Bellamy opened their bags and retrieved marshmallows, a bundle of roasting sticks, chocolate, crackers, and some matches for the fire.

Bellamy took charge of starting the fire, tossing some old, dry wood from the forest into the pit and then lighting a match on it. The fire roared to life, lighting up the circle in a warm glow. Octavia was passing around the sticks.

"This is so nice," Raven said, leaning forward with a marshmallow skewered on the edge of her roasting stick just above the fire.

"How come we never came here sooner?" Jasper wondered.

The Blake siblings shrugged their shoulders, and then Octavia answered, "I don't know, it seems like a special place. Plus, we didn't bring enough marshmallows and stuff, and for some reason, this camp doesn't have any real camping equipment besides stupid tents."

"Hey, at least those tents actually came in handy for some people, though," Anya commented, looking to Lexa and Clarke suggestively.

Lexa waved a hand at her best friend. "Oh shut up." Clarke just smirked and stuck a marshmallow onto the end of the stick, holding it over the fire.

They were all quiet for a few minutes, listening to the fire crackle and enjoying the warmth from it – nighttime was surprisingly cooler than during the day.

Octavia finally let out a long sigh as she pulled a marshmallow off of her stick with two graham crackers. "This summer went by way too fast." She added chocolate onto her s'more and then took a bite.

"Agreed," Clarke said, leaning into her girlfriend a bit.

"Aw, who would've thought Clarke would be sad about leaving? You hated this place when you got here," Raven reminded her.

Clarke rolled her eyes, "So did you, Raven."

"Whatever."

"I think my favorite part of the summer was when we broke into Echo's cabin," Harper said, laughing lightly at the memory.

"Oh god," Lexa said, and Clarke grinned at her girlfriend, nudging her. The brunette just gave the blonde a gentle smile.

"That was pretty bad ass," Octavia agreed, nodding proudly. "I still have that video on my camera, too. If Echo ever turns super evil again, I'll have it as leverage."

"Watch it, O," Bellamy said, looking at his little sister with narrowed eyes. She returned the look with a playful smile.

"I'm just kidding, of course." He shook his head at her toothy grin following the claim. "What else was a favorite part of this summer...?"

"Mine was the video game tournament day," Monty said, a wide smile on his face.

Raven let out a laugh and said, "Oh, of course it would be. I don't really have a favorite part of camp. I guess just everything from the second half. The first half of the summer was kinda lame, not gonna lie."

"Same," Clarke said, putting her newly roasted marshmallow onto a s'more sandwich and taking a bite of the messy, yet delicious, snack. She looked to her girlfriend, "What about you?"

"Definitely beating Anya in that race on Saturday," Lexa answered teasingly as she flashed a wide grin in the direction of her best friend, whose middle finger was already up in the air.

"Hey, I beat you when it counted," Anya snapped, tossing a normal marshmallow into her mouth.

"I think the best part of camp was just all of the people, though," Lincoln piped up. "At first kind of felt like it was all about the competitions, but after a while, it was obviously not."

"I guess you people are okay," Clarke joked, flashing a teasing grin across the circle at Octavia and Raven, and then looking at Lexa next to her. The brunette was giving her a small smile, and her green eyes were sparkling under the glow of the fire.

"What was the best competition of the summer?" Bellamy asked, curious of everyone's answers.

"Capture the Flag for sure," Raven said instantly. "We totally dominated, and lots of us actually got to contribute to it too."

"Some of us had to sit most of that one out," Anya said grudgingly, "because our flag was stolen within the first two hours."

Clarke shrugged, smirking, "Guess you should've hid your flag somewhere better."

"You're a pain in the ass," Anya said to the blonde, though her tone was joking and Clarke just laughed.

"She's my pain in the ass, Anya, so watch what you're saying," Lexa interrupted defensively, obviously joking as well, and everyone in the circle laughed as Clarke peppered a light kiss on the brunette's cheek.

"Best competition was the last one," Jasper said, smiling proudly. "Because someone other than Pods Six or One actually won – and it was us."

"Hey, Pod Three won the swimming competition," Anya reminded him. "Plus, the trivia thing was totally luck. Your pod might've all somehow got the easiest questions."

"Don't hate just because you're butt hurt," Bellamy teased, grinning at the girl as she glared at him. The two of them didn't know each other well, but Clarke found the encounter pretty funny.

"How about the banner competition?" Harper suggested. "Clarke's banner was definitely on point."

"It wasn't my banner, I'm not the only one who worked on it," Clarke said quietly, her cheeks flushing red at the compliment.

Octavia rolled her eyes. "Clarke, I worked on it more than anyone else besides you, and even I know that you did almost that entire thing. It was basically your banner. And it really was fucking flawless."

"Yeah, you guys had that one in the bag," Lincoln said, smiling kindly at Clarke, who was still blushing at all of the compliments.

"Well, art is kind of what I do like... all of the time. At least, when I'm not stuck in a summer camp," she joked. She'd had about four s'mores by now, and she was just about full of them. She set down her roasting stick and leaned her head against her girlfriend's shoulder.

"You did it a lot this summer, too, so I have no doubt that you spend all your free time on it normally," Raven said. "I remember when we were hanging out just us that one time at the beginning of camp, we just like sat in the woods and you were drawing and I was reading and we were hardcore pretending like we weren't going to be forced to participate in outdoor activities all summer."

"Yeah, and when you bailed on me, that's when Lexa burst in and scared the shit out of me and made me fall on my ass," Clarke muttered, rolling her eyes as the group laughed.

"I wish I could've seen that," Octavia said, a grin across her face. "Clarke was so pissed after that because I was laughing so hard when she told us what happened."

Lexa was grinning. "She tried to look all angry afterward, but she just looked super cute."

"Shut up," Clarke whined.

They all laughed and then went silent again for a moment, though now smiles were stuck on their faces. A few moments later, Anya said, "How about when Pod One and Six got busted and had to camp out in tents for a weekend."

Jasper smirked. "I thought that was pretty funny."

"It wasn't," Octavia grumbled. "Echo and I were not in a good enough place to be sharing a tent. We didn't talk at all while we were in there. We actually only went in there when were like actually going to sleep."

"Caris wouldn't stop talking in my tent," Clarke said, rolling her eyes.

Harper shrugged. "She seemed really nice when I stayed in there with her. The talking didn't bother me."

"Because you love to talk to people, Harper," Monty said, giving the girl a pointed look.

"Fair enough."

The conversation continued on like that for a while, until everyone was full of s'mores and was feeling sleepy. It was probably nearing two in the morning by the time that happened.

"We should probably all get some sleep," Lincoln said. "We have lots of goodbyes to say tomorrow."

"Can we all get a goodbye hug in right now?" Harper asked, sounding deflated all of the sudden. "In case any of us have to leave a bit early tomorrow morning?"

They went around and gave each other all tight hugs, and then Octavia remembered that she'd brought an notepad and a pen, and in the light of the dying fire, everyone scribbled their phone numbers onto little pieces of paper. Everyone ended up with a sheet of paper from the notepad with everyone else's numbers listed on it. Lexa had written hers on Clarke's with a heart next to it, which made the blonde smile as she folded the paper up carefully and deposited it safely in her pocket.

They stomped out the remains of the fire and then started the trek back. Some small talk was exchanged, but as they got closer, they became silent. They didn't want to wake anyone up.

When they got to camp, they split up into the different directions they needed to go, but Lexa caught Clarke's hand, and started pulling her away from the cabins, down toward the lake. When they got there, Lexa flicked on her flashlight, and they started toward the dock. They were still unspeaking, but Clarke's mind was questioning what Lexa was thinking.

When they got to the dock, they both deemed it safe to whisper. "What's up?" Clarke asked quietly, looking at her girlfriend.

"I wrote you something," Lexa said, producing a folded piece of paper from inside the light jacket she'd been wearing to fight the cool air of the night. "I want you to read it when you get back to your cabin, before you go to sleep."

"Okay," Clarke agreed, taking the paper. An amused smile grew on her face. "You brought me all the way over here to give me that?"

"Well... and to do this," Lexa replied, wrapping her arms around Clarke's waist and pulling her impossibly close. They looked at each others' eyes for a moment, and then their lips touched slowly and softly. Their kiss was warm in the cool air, and Clarke brought her arms up and around Lexa's neck as the brunette's tongue slid past her lips.

Their embrace lasted an unknown amount of time, but Clarke figured that it was a little while before they finally decided that they should go back to their respective cabins.

Clarke went into the bathroom to quickly wash up and get ready for bed, seeing as Octavia and Harper were already wrapped up in their blankets and breathing evenly. She took Lexa's letter with her and read it in the lit room.

Clarke,

So I've been trying to think of what to write to you, because there are some things I wanna say before summer ends. It's taken me hours to even think of how to start this letter – I actually have a rough draft. Go figure. I'm a sappy little shit even though I've made fun of you for being sappy.

The truth is, I've loved this summer with you. Camp was awesome, and meeting a bunch of new friends was great, but you were the highlight of my summer. I know that even though we're going to spend most of the next school year apart, and we don't really know what's going to happen after that, you'll still be the highlight of my life. I smile when I think of you, and I hope you do the same about me. You probably do, because as soon as you see me, your eyes always light up and you just look so alive. I love that.

So despite me being sappy as fuck, I'm also a little shy sometimes. Surprise. I wanted to say some of this stuff in person, but I didn't want to get all mixed up with my words. I wanted them to make sense. I would say them all to you in person if I trusted myself to do so.

Right now it's Sunday, and we have a week and three days left of camp. I'm going to give this to you on Tuesday night – but you know that, because you're reading it right now. As it stands, I've realized something, Clarke. I've thought about what it'll be like to not be with you every day or even every week for a whole year, and it sounds so hard, but every alternative sounds worse. Like not having you at all, or having you as less than we are right now. Basically, I'm glad that we decided to try this distance thing.

Because I need you, Clarke. That's another thing I realized. I'm falling in love with you. For some reason, it feels scary to say that to you out loud, but maybe that's just because even when I'm just writing it down, my heart is pounding. I'll tell it to you tomorrow, before you leave. If you end up having to leave really early, you better come fucking wake me up. Neither of us is leaving until we get another goodbye kiss.

Anyway, that's really it. It took me an embarrassingly long time to write this letter. I just wanted it to be perfect, I guess. Don't ask Anya how long it took me, though. She thinks I'm crazy.

Thank you for making my summer perfect.

Xx Lexa xX

Clarke inhaled deeply as she finished reading the letter. She read it again, and then folded it up carefully. A smile was stuck on her face, because in reading the letter, she realized something.

She was so in love with her girlfriend.

* * *

Clarke woke up probably earlier than her body wanted to, because everyone around her was shuffling around, packing up all of their things. It was probably about eight in the morning.

"Morning sleepy head," Octavia said, reaching across from her bunk and poking the blonde.

"Don't touch me," Clarke complained. "I'm tired."

"How long were you and Lexa gone before you guys finally went to bed?" Octavia wondered.

"Like half an hour. Not too long."

Octavia let out a sigh. "Well... I feel like shit from staying out so late. Also just because I don't want to leave this place. It sucks to know that when I come back here next year, all of you will be gone."

"You'll have Lexa," Clarke said, "assuming she decides to come back."

"Yeah, but... Bellamy will be gone, you'll be gone, Raven will be gone... even Echo will be gone, and that's going to be so weird."

Clarke sat up in her bed as much as she could without hitting the ceiling. "You'll be fine, Octavia. Remember, you're going to be queen of camp next summer." She smiled playfully at her friend. "Plus, you're not going to lose us. We'll just be moving into dorms or apartments while you're partying it up at Camp Unite."

Octavia laughed, shaking her head. "You better get up and get your shit ready to go. They're literally serving pizza all day at the mess hall while people are leaving." The girl hopped off of her bed and slipped into the bathroom, as one had just become available.

Half an hour later, Clarke was ready to leave. She had her duffle packed with everything she needed, and she was wearing shorts and a tank. Her letter from Lexa was folded nicely in a safe pocket of her duffle, and the small note with everyone's phone numbers on it was folded and waiting in her pocket. Her phone was dead at the moment, but once her dad picked up her, she could plug it in and add all of the contacts into it. The first, of course, being Lexa's.

Clarke and Octavia went to the mess hall right off of the bat, grabbing some pizza before heading to the front of camp. Everyone who didn't know when their ride was going to get there was basically camped out in the big entrance area, circled up with their friends and talking and chatting and exchanging numbers. There were actually a lot of tears as well, especially from people Clarke's age. So many people wouldn't be coming back in a year.

"You losers ready to go back home?" Raven asked as the two of them approached where she was standing.

"No," Clarke answered, sighing. "Hey Raven, what school do you go to in Caelum?"

"North Caelum High," Raven answered.

Clarke raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? That's literally where I go to school. How have we never even seen each other?"

"I've only lived there for about half a year. I started school there beginning of this year," Raven answered. "But awesome, looks like I'll actually have a friend there this year. Last year I kinda kept a low profile."

"Aw, good for you guys, gonna be at the same school for your last year of high school," Octavia muttered.

"Hey, don't be so grumpy," Raven said, bumping the younger girl with her elbow. "You don't have much time of high school left."

"But I'm so far away from you guys," Octavia said, sighing and looking at Raven with sad eyes. "Maybe my parents will let me run away and live in Caelum."

"Well, I doubt it, but I have an extra room in my house if that ever happens," Clarke offered, a small smile on her face. Octavia returned it, and then let out a long sigh.

Suddenly, Clarke's gaze caught on her girlfriend walking out into the front part of camp, her bag slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were glancing around, probably looking for Clarke, but the blonde immediately started closer to her girlfriend.

She didn't catch the brunette off guard, but even though Lexa offered her a smile, the first thing Clarke did was slam her lips into Lexa's. The kiss lasted a little long, considering that there were people all around them, but no one was really paying attention anyway. When Clarke pulled away, she was gazing at Lexa was a look of longing.

"I can't believe you made me wait all night before I could say anything to you about your letter," Clarke grumbled, keeping her arms around her girlfriend.

Lexa blushed. "Sorry..."

Clarke rolled her eyes, an amused smile on her face, before pressing her lips to Lexa's again. When she pulled away from the kiss, she took Lexa's hand and pulled her over to where Raven and Octavia were standing. They both eyed Clarke oddly. "You two are so weird," Raven commented.

"Shut up," Clarke muttered, rolling her eyes.

After about an hour of chilling there, the first of them was leaving. It was Raven, who saw her mom's car driving up and let out a shaky breath. "Well, that's me. I'll text you guys, okay?"

"You fucking better," Octavia snapped, suddenly grabbing Raven in a tight hug, before changing her mind and pressing her lips to the girl's. "If you don't, I'll drive to Caelum despite my lack of a license and I will kidnap you."

Raven looked slightly surprised at the ferocity in Octavia's voice, but then she just smiled softly at the girl. "I'll text you before I get home, don't worry." She placed a soft kiss on Octavia's lips, and then she gave both Clarke and Lexa separate hugs. "See you in school, Clarke," she said, winking at the blonde, who laughed.

"Bye, Raven."

Raven grabbed her back and went to her mom's car, tossing the bag into the backseat and the sliding into the passenger seat. Then, she was gone.

The next to leave was Octavia, and Bellamy, but at that point, a bunch of other people had joined their little circle. A honk was heard, and Bellamy glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, that's us, O."

Octavia let out a breath. "Well... you guys better text me." She was looking at Clarke mainly, but she looked around at everyone else as well. "And if you don't, I just want you all to know that I've taken some awful pictures of all of you throughout this summer without you noticing, and I'm not above using them as blackmail."

Clarke let out a laugh, though her heart was hurting at the thought of not seeing her new friend very often. "Bye, Octavia." She wrapped her in a hug, and then Octavia took turns hugging everyone else. Then Bellamy and Octavia were gone with a quick wave, soon packed up in their parents' car and driving back off home to Terra.

Clarke didn't know whether she'd prefer Lexa leaving first, or her leaving first. She wasn't sure which would be harder. Not that there was a choice, and soon, she saw her dad's car driving up the road. She tensed up immediately at seeing it, and Lexa felt it. "You okay?"

"My dad's here," Clarke said, her voice sounding very deflated. She turned to face her girlfriend head on. "I'll text you in the car."

"I stole one of Echo's portable chargers that she'd been using sparingly last night," Lexa admitted, "so my phone's actually not dead right now."

"Then you better text me back," Clarke demanded. Lexa gave her a gentle smile and nodded. Clarke looked at her green eyes for a moment, and then threw her arms around Lexa, burying her face into her neck. Lexa held her close. "Lexa... I love you."

She was surprised by her own words, but she knew that they were true.

Lexa didn't say anything, just pulling out of the hug and pressing a loving kiss to Clarke's lips. "I love you too," she whispered back, once the kiss ended. Clarke took in a deep breath and stepped away from her girlfriend, grabbing her duffle and slinging the strap over her shoulder.

"Bye," she said, before looking to her other friends – Anya included. "Bye, you guys."

"Bye, Clarke!" Harper chirped, smiling.

"I'm sure I'll see you sometime, blondie," Anya said, though the smile she wore was actually quite nice.

"Bye, Clarke," Lexa said, her smile far less sad than Clarke supposed that she was about the summer ending.

"Bye," Clarke said to her girlfriend again, before turning and going to her dad's car.

He greeted her with a wide smile. "So, I'm assuming that girl is the Lexa you told me about?"

"Yeah," Clarke answered, immediately blushing as she tossed her duffle into the back of the car and then got into the passenger seat.

"So I assume summer camp wasn't too bad after all?"

Clarke shook her head, smiling a small smile as she plugged her phone into the car charger next to the center console. Her dad drove out of the roundabout in front of camp, and Clarke glanced out the window at her friends and her girlfriend, the latter watching her back.

They were away from the area within seconds, though, and Clarke tried to contain the sad sigh she wanted to exhale. Instead, she waited for her phone to flicker back on as it was filled with power, and then she retrieved the folded up paper from her pocket.

She found the little "Lexa Woods" followed by a pretty heart, and copied the number next to it into her contacts.

 **To Lexa – Hey, I miss you. Xx**

She waited only a handful more seconds.

 **From Lexa – Hey :)**

 **From Lexa – I miss you, too.**

 **From Lexa – Also, I love you. And I'll see you as soon as I possibly can. XX**

Clarke let out a deep breath, a smile on her face, and she leaned her head against the back of the passenger seat. She knew that she would be counting down the days until she could see Lexa again in person, but until then, distance was worth it, because Lexa was amazing, and she was completely worth it.

And she would do it, because she'd suffered through summer camp, and even that had ended up being completely worth it.


End file.
